Lily Allen gives ex both barrels in the divorce album to beat them all
Stevie Nicks sang so Lily Allen could rant about her ex-husband on her new album West End Girl.
“Truth is a great defence to defamation,” is how one of Australia’s best libel litigators summed up Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl.
Aren’t critics, not the courts, what singers are most worried about when releasing brand new music into the world?
Sure. Yet in the case of Allen and her first album in seven years, the latter could have some surprises in store.
Stevie Nicks and Beyonce vented their spleens so Allen could remove a gall bladder in 44 minutes with a divorce album inspired, allegedly, by her ex-husband, the Netflix superstar David Harbour.
Her new collection of songs makes Nick’s Silver Springs sound twee, Beyonce’s Lemonade aurally flat and takes a Taylor Swift-like obsession with autofiction to a whole new level.
As someone who has been candid about her reliance on drugs and alcohol in the past and grappled with body image issues, Allen has never been one for holding things back. But these new songs like Tennis, Nonmonogamummy and Pussy Palace, lay bare how her relationship and break-up with The Stranger Things star are totally brutal.
Tales of professional jealousy (Allen landed a number of critically acclaimed starring roles in West End plays including the 2:22 The Ghost Story and The Pillowman during their union), loose open marriage agreements after their 2020 Vegas wedding was officiated by an Elvis impersonator, deception and sex addiction are woven brilliantly through West End Girl with her clever writing, catchy hooks and calm delivery.
The internet also has a new “Becky with the good hair” to investigate.
The song Madeline is seemingly about an American mistress who is also famous. “We had an arrangement. Be discreet and don’t be blatant. There had to be payment. It had to be with strangers. But you’re not a stranger, Madeline,” Allen sings.
While Dolly Parton pleaded with Jolene to not steal her man, Allen is less understanding.
“If it was just sex, I wouldn’t be jealous. You won’t play with me. And who the f..k is Madeline?”
We get a rebuttal from the character – Jolene’s equally conniving granddaughter perhaps? – via a spoken letter signed “with love and light”.
The shock of the album comes, in part, due to West End Girl being released with minimal fanfare – a rarity in the marketing machine that is the music industry today.
Other than some posters of the captivating Baroque-inspired artwork by Spanish artist Nieves Gonzalez plastered around London and a British Vogue fashion spread where she skirted around the issues of her relationship breakdown, the album was a bolt from the blue. Especially since she has taken a break from her podcast, Miss Me? to “protect” her mental health.
The 14 songs were written in just 10 days last December, the same time she moved to New York and announced her separation from Harbour.
It exploded with close to 4m streams in its first full day, marking it as one of the most successful pop debuts in recent years.
West End Girl follows her magnum opus, It’s Not Me, It’s You, from 2009.
Back then that was a collection of hits that were wily, camp, honest and irreverent about everything from fame to friendships.
This new body of work, by the now 40-year-old twice divorced mother of two, is the break-up album women of a certain age ache to write but lack her courage, creativity and legal team.
It’s not a Grammy-worthy work, but it’s a true piece of art.
West End Girl is unique, thought-provoking, boundary-pushing and, perhaps, even a little legally dicey.
Allen hasn’t produced anthems for the dance floor, she’s going all in on the drama and judging.
Let’s see if it lands her in court, and not just the streaming charts.
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