After a 7-year break from music, Lily Allen is back with a brand new album which chronicles the heart-breaking demise of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.
Since her debut album Alright, Still, Lily has been celebrated for her witty, honest lyrics, particularly on singles like Smile and her 2008 song The Fear, which won her an Ivor Novello songwriting award. And on my first listen to West End Girl, I could immediately tell that Lily’s knack for writing earworm tracks was as strong as ever.
This album is distinct from her previous projects though, as each track feeds into the next like a series of diary entries – it feels almost impossible to pause between songs. Starting with the title track, Lily introduces us to her idyllic, optimistic new life in New York with her husband. But with a one-sided phone call recreated in the song’s second half, we learn of his request for an open marriage and Lily’s trepidation towards this. This song’s catchy, musical theatre-style melody, fading away eerily into the background beneath the phone call, is a brilliant start to the album, capturing the dwindling idealism of her marriage into increasing emotional distress.
Saccharine melodies continue on Sleepwalking and Tennis, which serve as haunting contrasts to the heartbroken lyrics they are paired with, like “You won’t love me, You won’t leave me”, and Lily’s discovery of “Madeline”, a woman her husband has been repeatedly seeing in secret. Things are more sonically fraught and introspective on the tracks Ruminating and Relapse, with Lily opening up about the emotional toll her husband’s behaviour is taking on her, causing her to spiral and come close to breaking her sobriety.
Pussy Palace is where the album’s shocking revelations come to a head. With a seeming interpolation of the Stranger Things theme song at the start of the track, Lily describes finding all sorts of evidence of her husband’s sexual liaisons in his LA apartment. Not only is its shock factor high, but the eighties-inspired melody makes the song an enjoyable listen despite its bleak subject matter.
For me though, Just Enough is the best track on the album, with its tender melodies sweeping beneath Lily’s musings on continuing to love her husband towards the end of their marriage, despite feeling no love in return. Lily’s vocals on the chorus are especially beautiful, delicately revealing the vulnerability she must have been feeling.
Although her lyrics may not be particularly embellished or elaborate, I don’t think they need to be on this project – the rawness and honesty of the album feels much more genuine with her familiarly candid lyrical style. Even though they occasionally veer into feeling slightly too repetitive, such as on Beg For Me, overall, I’d say the album’s lyrical style isn’t holding it back from being immensely hooky and relatable for many listeners.
With a UK theatre tour recently announced for the album, West End Girl has brought Lily Allen back in the limelight, and rightly so.