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For the first time in seven years, Lily Allen is back with a new album. It\u2019s intimate, raw and autofictional.<\/p>\n
Last week, the \u201cSmile\u201d singer shared a 14-track breakup record, \u201cWest End Girl.\u201d Amid her split with \u201cStranger Things\u201d <\/a>actor David Harbour,<\/a> Allen provides an in-depth look into a broken relationship where the line between being open and being unfaithful is thin, where dating apps are on the table and where heartbreak seems inevitable. <\/p>\n The album, which was written in 10 days last December, begins with Allen\u2019s move to New York. The singer relocated to the East Coast in 2020 with her two daughters and then-husband, following the couple\u2019s whirlwind wedding in Las Vegas.<\/a> When Allen started dating Harbour in 2019, she had just finalized her divorce from Sam Cooper, with whom she shares her children.<\/p>\n On \u201cWest End Girl\u2019s\u201d opening track, she sings about receiving an offer to be in a West End production in London. In 2021, Allen made her debut in the supernatural play \u201c2:22 \u2014 A Ghost Story.\u201d From that moment on, tensions and distance only continued to build between the pair. Toward the end of the title track, Allen includes her end of a call where her partner is seemingly asking to open up the marriage.<\/p>\n As the pop melodies continue to ebb and flow, Allen reveals accusations of infidelity, the complications of being in an open marriage and mentions a pseudonym for a mistress on a track named \u201cMadeline.\u201d She doesn\u2019t stray away from details, especially when it comes to finding boxes of sex toys, love letters from other women and calling her partner a \u201csex addict\u201d on \u201cP\u2014 Palace.\u201d<\/p>\n By the end of the record, she makes it clear that the relationship is irreparable. The pair announced their separation last February after four years of marriage. Since the project\u2019s release last Friday, critics have been quick to fawn over Allen\u2019s return to music and Allen has been sure to let the press know the album is not fully based in fact.<\/p>\n In an interview with The Times<\/u><\/a>, the U.K.\u2019s oldest national daily newspaper, she says, \u201cI don\u2019t think I could say it\u2019s all true \u2014 I have artistic license. \u2026 But yes, there are definitely things I experienced within my relationship that have ended up on this album.\u201d<\/p>\n She similarly told Perfect Magazine<\/u><\/a> that the work can be considered \u201cautofiction\u201d and that an \u201calter ego\u201d is singing. When sitting down with British Vogue<\/u><\/a>, she clarified that the album is inspired by what went on in the relationship between, but \u201cthat\u2019s not to say that it\u2019s all gospel,\u201d<\/p>\n Harbour has yet to directly speak out about their relationship and has strayed away from the public eye, disabling comments on his Instagram page.<\/p>\n