Lily Allen’s new album West End Girl arrived with the energy of a diary entry written in real time.
Featured VideoRecorded in just ten days, it captured the end of her four-year marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour. It was a split Allen described as both confusing and cathartic. She was clear that not every lyric is literal, saying she “wasn’t sure what was real, and what was in my head,” but the emotional punch still landed hard.
Critics have praised the record as a sharp, witty mix of heartbreak and humor. Across tracks that swing from flamenco to glossy pop, Allen narrates a slow breakup filled with missed calls, open-relationship “agreements,” and the gut-punch discovery of “a shoebox full of handwritten letters from brokenhearted women.”
AdvertisementBy the final songs, she sounds ready to let go, singing, “I will not absorb your shame, it’s you who put me through this. I can walk out with my dignity if I lay my truth out on the table.”
From Vegas vows to breakup bops
Allen and Harbour married in Las Vegas in 2020, with an Elvis impersonator officiating and her daughters in attendance. For a while, their relationship seemed steady, with family selfies and red-carpet appearances.
AdvertisementBut by 2024, fans noticed they were rarely seen together. When Allen announced that she stepped back from her podcast, Miss Me?, to focus on her mental health, breakup rumors intensified.
Harbour later told GQ he preferred to stay private. “I’m protective of the people and the reality of my life.” Allen, meanwhile, used the studio as her therapy. She told Perfect Magazine, “If what you’re doing isn’t provocative, what’s the f*cking point? And if it’s not scary, what’s the point? I’m not here to be mediocre. My gift is my pen and my writing and the way that I observe the world.”
The result is West End Girl, her first album in seven years, and arguably her most direct. It’s raw, funny, and painfully self-aware, and it’s already inspired the internet’s favorite coping mechanism: memes.
AdvertisementThe funniest (and most relatable) memes about West End Girl
Once the album dropped, fans flooded social media with reactions and related meme images. Everyone seemed to find a lyric that felt a little too real or reacted to the overall message of Allen’s new album. Here are some of the best posts circulating online.
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