Lily Allen's first album in seven years, West End Girl, traces the fallout from an open relationship with unsparing detail. The album, which arrives in a more welcoming pop climate than its predecessor, No Shame, feels like an act of personal exorcism, picking through the collapse of Allen's second marriage with vivid, grubby detail. Allen told British Vogue that the album references things she experienced within her marriage, but not all is gospel.
The narrative arc follows accepting an open marriage under certain guidelines, only for the relationship to explode when the husband fails to abide by the rules. Songs detail confrontations with other women and a discovery of sex toys and letters from brokenhearted women in an apartment where Allen believed her husband was practising martial arts. A brief, unhappy attempt to beat him at his own game on a dating app ends with the phrase 'I hate it'. The album reaches a bitterly unhappy denouement: 'It is what it is – you’re a mess, I’m a bitch … all your shit’s yours to fix.'
While the lyrics will attract attention for their candour, the album offers more than cathartic disclosure. The songs skip through a variety of styles, from orchestrated Latin pop on the title track to R&B influences on Beg for Me and dancehall on Nonmonogamummy. What ties them together is the striking prettiness of the tunes, which contrast with the anger and unhappiness in the lyrics.
Allen stepped away from music after No Shame, focusing on acting, podcasting, and launching a sex toy line, but pop has cycled back to embrace her influence. Younger artists like Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, and Charli xcx have cited her impact, and West End Girl arrives in a climate more welcoming to her messy, mouthier style. The album is both gripping and shocking, leaving listeners wondering if airing so much dirty laundry can be a good idea, impeccably written and laced with mordant wit though the lyrics are.
