Lily Allen has insisted that ‘West End Girl’ is “not a cruel album”, saying she is no longer “confused or angry” about the circumstances that inspired the record.
The singer-songwriter released her long-awaited fifth LP last Friday (October 24), just four days after announcing the “vulnerable” surprise project. It follows on from Allen’s 2018 album ‘No Shame’.
‘West End Girl’, which comprises 14 songs, was written and recorded in just 10 days following the breakdown of the star’s marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, after he allegedly cheated on her.
The contents of the record have made headlines, with Allen having opened up about what had led to the couple’s split on the collection. “It’s very much an album about the complexities of relationships and how we all navigate them. It’s a story,” she said previously, also calling it “a mixture of fact and fiction”.
She has since explained that the LP had been inspired by her “deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment” after her divorce. Elsewhere, a woman who is said to have inspired Allen’s new song ‘Madeline’ has come forward following her affair with Harbour. However, Allen revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times that ‘Madeline’ was a fictional character who was a “construct of others”.
Now, in a new conversation with Interview magazine, Allen denied that ‘West End Girl’ was a “revenge” album, and explained that she was now in a more positive headspace than when she created it.
“I mean, I wrote this record in 10 days in December and I feel very differently about the whole situation now,” she told the publication. “We all go through breakups and it’s always fucking brutal. But I don’t think it’s that often that you feel inclined to write about it while you’re in it.”
She added: “That’s what’s fun about this record; it’s viscerally like going through the motions. At the time, I was really trying to process things and that’s great in terms of the album, but I don’t feel confused or angry now. I don’t need revenge.”
When asked if she was telling a story with ‘West End Girl’, Allen reiterated that “some of it is based on truth and some of it is fantasy”. The interviewer also praised the emotional track ‘Sleepwalking’ and asked whether it would be released as a single.
“I’m glad to hear that, because record labels always want the upbeat ones [to be singles], like ‘Nonmonogamummy’,” she responded. “But I’m with you, I like ‘Sleepwalking’.”
The artist went on to talk about ‘West End Girl’ on the whole, saying: “It’s not a cruel album. I don’t feel like I’m being mean. It was just the feelings I was processing at the time.
“It was very important to me that I didn’t sound like a victim, so I’d be like, ‘We have to change that line. It just sounds too, ‘Poor me’.’ I wanted it to feel brutal and tragic, but also empowering, that there was joy in being able to express it.”
In a four-star review, NME described ‘West End Girl’ as “a sleek, smart collection that sees Allen back at her very best”. It hailed the singer’s “pop hooks and brutal honesty”, and called the LP “a slow-burn break-up album with Allen taking heavy inspiration from her own life”.
Reports of Allen’s separation from Harbour emerged at the start of this year, amid rumours that the Stranger Things star had cheated. Later, Allen revealed that she went into a treatment centre to deal with the “emotional turmoil” of the break-up.
Allen and Harbour began dating in 2019 after meeting on the dating app Raya, and tied the knot in an intimate Las Vegas ceremony in 2020.
In other news, the NYC townhouse owned by the former couple has been listed for sale just days after the release of ‘West End Girl’.
