Lily Allen – ‘West End Girl’ review: a vicious, vulnerable and victorious comeback

Lily Allen’s been flirting with a comeback ever since she joined Olivia Rodrigo onstage at Glastonbury Festival 2022. The pair’s joyous, fiery rendition of Allen’s politically-charged 2008 hit ‘Fuck You’ was an overdue reminder of just how fearless a pop star she had been in her heyday. Her first two albums (2006’s ‘Alright, Still’ and the 2008 follow-up ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’) inspired the next generation, with everyone from Joy Crookes and PinkPantheress to Billie Eilish taking influence from her cutting, conversational songwriting.

Third album ‘Sheezus’ sounded like an identity crisis, though, and since the release of 2018’s underrated electropop ‘No Shame’, Allen’s pivoted to become a celebrated star of stage and screen instead. She’s also been topping charts and snatching headlines while co-hosting the Miss Me? podcast (though she stepped down last month). Despite these successful ventures, Lily Allen never stopped writing music – she was just never able to create anything that felt interesting enough to release. “[It was] observational stuff about the internet and the world. It just all seemed really obvious and crap,” she said in a recent interview.

Surprise album ‘West End Girl’ is certainly neither of those. Written and recorded in just 10 days following the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things’ David Harbour, it’s a sleek, smart collection that sees Allen back at her very best. The 14 tracks are a familiar blend of experimental electronics, chirpy dance, infectious pop hooks and brutal honesty. For the most part, ‘West End Girl’ is an updated take on the sound that made her a crossover ’00s icon that never settles for comfortable throwback nostalgia.

Starting with the title track, a dreamy, musical theatre-inspired number, ‘West End Girl’ is a slow-burn break-up album with Allen taking heavy inspiration from her own life. She’s been quick to describe it as a “story”, though, which allows her to sing openly about finding a secret bag with “sex toys, butt plugs, lube [and] hundreds of Trojans” in her partner’s “pussy palace”.

As you’d expect from her most “vulnerable” album, there’s a lot of grief and misery across ‘West End Girl’, but it never sounds depressing. Since ‘Smile’, Allen’s always had a knack for making devastation sound exciting. There’s rage behind the pulsating ‘Ruminating’ as she struggles with the realities of an open marriage, playful other woman anthem ‘Madeline’ is a dizzying cocktail of uncertainty, fury and empathy, while the gorgeous ‘Just Enough’ is as crushing as it gets, heartbreak amplified by lush strings. It feels like a much-needed purge.

Diving into the complexities of love and loss, the rumbling ‘Relapse’ is about living up to the expectations of others, joyfully funky ‘Nonmonogamummy’ tackles dating in your late thirties and the art of people pleasing, before ‘Beg For Me’ has Allen listing exactly what she needs from a relationship. It leads into the determined, no-nonsense ‘Let You W/in’ and the smirking clarity of ‘Fruityloop’, which has her quoting her second album ‘It’s Not Me, It’s You’. By the end of ‘West End Girl’, it’s clear the relationship in this tale might be over, but Lily Allen’s comeback is just getting started.

Details: 

• Record label: BMG
• Release date: October 24, 2025

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