What would pop be without breakup albums? Hardly anything inspires creativity – unfortunately! – as much as painful relationship endings. What would Fleetwood Mac be without RUMOURS? Frank Ocean without CHANNEL ORANGE, Joni Mitchell without BLUE or Adele without 30? We would never have heard of Bon Iver if he hadn’t retreated to a little wooden hut and written FOR EMMA, FOREVER AGO.
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But hardly anyone in pop history has taken the topic of separation albums to the extreme like Lily Allen, who explains her separation from actor David Harbor in all the details with WEST END GIRL. With receipts, evidence, names, dates – romantic true crime, so to speak, including an inspection of the crime scene in the single “Pussy Palace”.
From great love to insecurity, betrayal, self-doubt and separation
In 14 songs we follow her personal emancipation process from great love to insecurity, betrayal, self-doubt and separation, with painfully emotional, almost brutal lyrics over glittering pop compositions that shimmer back and forth between reduced folk to two-step to disco. What is real, what is fiction? And doesn’t that actually matter?
Of course, in the era of stan culture and parasocial relationships, Lily Allen runs the risk of giving too much away on WEST END GIRL, and of course fans pounce on every Instagram post and video the couple posted during their good times, comparing timelines and narratives to the album. But apart from the whole celebrity circus, with WEST END GIRL Lily Allen is back where she is artistically at home: the unsparing little observations from the abyss of romantic relationships that underpin her brutally honest lyrics, but sometimes glitter magnificently.