Lily Allen, West End Girl ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Lily Allen is back with her first album in seven years, and boy… Hell hath no fury. I hope you’re not a David Harbour fan. I’m sure Netflix is real happy that this came out right before the final season of Stranger Things.
As I alluded to, this album is a brutally honest, and explicitly detailed, examination of the dissolution of her and David Harbour’s marriage. And no, it does not paint him in a good light. But I think the more interesting side of this album is her very human reaction to his infidelity and horrible behavior.
Her trying desperately to make it work by allowing things in their marriage that she’s not comfortable with is absolutely heart wrenching to listen to. This is a takedown of him, but the examination of her own values and boundaries, and how she reluctantly betrayed them, is the bigger gut punch. “I’m so committed that I’d lose myself / ‘Cause I don’t want to lose you.”
The lyricism is, as you would expect, vulnerable and raw. And the music is great. It’s a sad contemplative album, but it never gets bogged down. She keeps it moving along. This will 100% go down as a breakup classic. Hell, try breakup masterpiece.
Favorite song: “Nonmonogamummy”
