"On West End Girl, Allen channels her frustrations and anxieties around her divorce from actor David Harbour, and (pretty much chronologically) dives into the various reasons their marriage fell apart. She goes into great detail; like on the title track, which captures Allen's move to New York to be with Harbour before she's quickly given an opportunity to move back to London to star in a West End play."
"Soon after, Allen attempts to make peace with the idea that the man she married wasn't exactly living up to her expectations and chafes at the idea of non-monogamy. "If it has to happen, baby, do you want to know?," she sings, quoting her ex proposing an open relationship over the phone. "What a fucking line... This conversation's too big for a phone call.""
"Allen then dives into the various issues that their "arrangement" brought up: the distance, the humiliation, the feeling like she'll never be enough for him. She shudders at the realization that her home in New York was serving as a locale for her husband to cheat on "Pussy Palace," and on "Madeline," she confronts one of his mistresses: "I'm not convinced that he didn't fuck you in our house," Allen sings."
Lily Allen turns personal upheaval into the narrative spine of West End Girl, tracing her move between New York and London and the breakdown of her marriage. The album addresses a partner's proposal of an open relationship, the humiliation of suspected infidelity, and the emotional distance those arrangements caused. Songs tackle mental health and addiction, sacrifices made to preserve a relationship, dating challenges related to age and profession, and the messy legal and emotional fallout of divorce. The record closes with a hard-won note of acceptance and a return to defiant, self-aware perspective.
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