Lily Allen pulls no punches on her latest album, West End Girl.
The 14-track record, which was released Friday, October 24, chronicles the breakdown of Allen’s four-year marriage to David Harbour and heavily insinuates that the Stranger Things star, 50, cheated on the singer, 40, prior to their 2024 separation.
Allen opens the album with its title track, by which she recalls moving to Latest York City with Harbour firstly of her relationship. She sings that she later received a phone call informing her that she had gotten the lead role in a West End play. When she informed her partner, his “demeanor began to vary,” so she went home to London “on their lonesome” to start rehearsals. (Allen has starred in each 2021’s 2:22 A Ghost Story and 2023’s The Pillowman.)
By the second and third songs, “Ruminating” and “Sleepwalking,” Allen finds herself staying up all night excited about her higher half having sex with other women while she is away. She sings within the latter, “Been no romance since we wed / ‘Why aren’t we f***ing, baby?’ Yeah, that’s what you said / But you let me think it was me in my head / And nothing to do with them girls in your bed.”
Eventually, Allen returns home, only to see a text from a lady named Madeline on her partner’s phone. She reveals within the lyrics to “Tennis” that she confronted her better half, but he “made all of it [her] fault.”
Allen decides to take matters into her own hands, messaging the opposite woman within the aptly titled track “Madeline” to ask, “How long has it been happening? Is it just sex or is there emotion?” Allen goes on to sing about having “an arrangement” in her marriage that permitted her husband to sleep with other women on a couple of conditions: “Be discreet and don’t be blatant / There needed to be payment / It needed to be with strangers.”
After losing trust, a heartbroken Allen, who has been sober since 2019, yearns for a drink and a Valium in “Relapse.” She emotionally sings, “The bottom is gone beneath me / You pulled the protection net / I moved across an ocean from my family, from my friends / The muse is shattered / You’ve made such a f***ing mess.”
Lily Allen Nieves González/BMG
Allen’s pain turns to anger in “P**sy Palace” when she calls out her “sex addict” spouse’s “double life” and claims to have found a shopping bag full of adult toys, lubricant and “tons of” of condoms. She makes one other gut-wrenching discovery in “4chan Stan” when she sees a receipt for a handbag from Bergdorf Goodman’s flagship NYC store that was purchased while she was in London.
2025 kicked off with a slew of celebrity breakups. Thank You! You may have successfully subscribed. Subscribe to newsletters Please enter a legitimate email. Subscribe By signing up, I comply with the Terms and Privacy Policy and to receive emails from Us Weekly Deal of the Day Rating 50% Off These Cozy Suede Booties Users Say […]
“Why won’t you tell me what her name is?” she fumes. “That is outrageous / What, is she famous?”
Fed up, Allen admittedly starts in search of “someone to rejoice with while [her] husband walks away” in “Dallas Major,” which is seemingly the fake name she used during a one-night stand. She sings to her paramour, “You realize I was once quite famous, that was way back within the day / Yes, I’m here for validation, and I probably should explain / How my marriage has been open since my husband went astray.”
By the album’s closing song, “Fruityloop,” Allen involves the conclusion that “it’s not me, it’s you” (a nod to the title of her 2008 album) and tells her ex, “Wish I could fix all of your s***, but all of your s*** is yours to repair.”
Harbour’s rep didn’t reply to Us Weekly’s request for comment.
Lily Allen has been very open about her journey to motherhood through the years. The singer shares daughters Ethel, born in November 2011, and Marnie, born in January 2013, along with her ex-husband, Sam Cooper. Their first child, son George, was stillborn when Allen was six months pregnant in 2010. “For ten hours between my baby […]
Harbour has only publicly addressed his split from Allen once. In a British GQ interview in April, he cryptically said, “I’m protective of the people and the truth of my life. There’s no use in that type of engaging [with rumors] since it’s all based on hysterical hyperbole.”
Allen, for her part, confirmed to Vogue in a profile published Monday, October 20, that her latest album is “inspired by what went on in the connection,” though she added, “That’s to not say that it’s all gospel.”
Allen was previously married to Sam Cooper from 2011 to 2018. They share two daughters: Ethel, 13, and Marnie, 12.
West End Girl, Allen’s first album in seven years, is offered now.