Lily Allen has always been known for her candour but the “radical level of sharing” in her latest album “West End Girl” makes you feel as if you are “eavesdropping on a private conversation”, said Louis Staples in Harper’s Bazaar. Through her raw lyrics, she delivers something so unfiltered that it sets a “new benchmark for what it means to be vulnerable”.
Allen leaves no room for ambiguity in this retelling of how her relationship with ex-husband David Harbour unravelled. She tackles the “taboo” topic of open relationships in “searing detail”, breaking down their “progressive facade” and revealing how hers left her feeling like a “desexualised, disempowered wife”. Despite the “very specific story” she tells, the album is still “littered with relatable moments”. “West End Girl” demonstrates that “vulnerability has become pop’s most valuable currency”.
“It’s not just what she says from moment to moment but how she says it that keeps you riveted,” said Chris Willman in Variety. The album plays out like a “suspense movie” despite the end of the story being no surprise. Allen is a “master storyteller” and the jaw-dropping details keep you “on the edge” of your seat. Most divorce albums will give listeners “occasional time-outs from the trauma” but there are no “commercial breaks” here. Allen suggested in an interview that there is a “little fiction mixed in” but the “vividly delineated” lyrics make you question how it could be anything but the truth.
Allen has “shape-shifted through genres”, said Maura Johnston in Rolling Stone, but her strength has always been her voice. Her distinct “airy soprano” is what makes her so unique. When you combine her singing with the album’s “fluffy synth-pop” sound, it adds a sort of “gauziness that makes its lyrical swipes land more sharply”.
It’s easy to get “wrapped up” in the lyrics during the first listen but the music’s “stylistic pastiche” is also worth paying attention to, said Willman in Variety. From “finger-picking guitar and orchestra” to “wildly up-tempo” beats, the sound is very dynamic. Despite its largely “avenging spirit”, “West End Girl” is a “tremendously touching” album.
Lily Allen’s unfiltered new work is ‘littered with relatable moments’
