Lily Allen is back with her first new album in seven years, and the internet can\u2019t stop talking about it. On West End Girl, the British singer-songwriter painfully details the breakdown of her five-year marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour.<\/p>\n
Today on Commotion, host Elamin Abdelmahmoud breaks down the gossip, the reaction and the music of West End Girl with culture writer Olivia Petter<\/a> and music critic Reanna Cruz<\/a>.<\/p>\n We’ve included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player<\/a>.<\/p>\n WATCH | Today’s episode on YouTube:<\/p>\n Elamin: Olivia, there was something, honestly, so cinematic about so much of this record. What are the moments that stick out for you as you listen to them and say, \u201cWow, I can’t believe that you’re willing to paint this scene for me?\u201d<\/p>\n Olivia: I think the big moment is Madeline\u2026. The album centres around this concept of the other woman in the relationship. And the character of Madeline in the album is a woman who Lily’s husband is sleeping with, who is not conforming to the rules of their open [marriage] arrangements. She sings: \u201cBut you’re not a stranger, Madeline.\u201d And you get the sense that this is someone with whom her husband has been having an affair with, that has been a massive betrayal. And what’s really interesting about that song is she directly addresses this character, Madeline, and there is an exchange between the two of them. And you get this American accented Madeline speaking back to her as well, and it’s this very interesting dialogue. But I think what differentiates this song from tracks like [Dolly Parton\u2019s] Jolene and Beyonc\u00e9’s \u201cBecky with the good hair\u201d is that Lily is not necessarily demonizing the character of Madeline in a way that we would have seen in the past. I think we’ve moved on a lot from that in terms of\u2014<\/p>\n Elamin: Olivia, she kills her in the song. I just want to note that we literally hear bullets in the song. She may not be demonizing her, but there are literal gunshots at her, fired a few times. And I go, \u201cThat’s too many for one person.\u201d I assume these are a bunch of people being murdered here.\u00a0<\/p>\n Olivia: But is she killing her or is she killing him? This is the thing, right? I would argue that she’s killing [her husband] because, to me, when I listen to this, I don’t hear this as an attack of Madeline, I hear this is an attack of him. And I think we have such a long history of blaming women for the behaviour of men. And I think this song doesn’t do that.\u00a0<\/p>\n I’ve seen on social media, there’s been this rhetoric around, \u201cOh my God, we have to find Madeline, we have to target her.\u201d And to me, that totally misses the point of this song because I think Lily is too clever an artist and too clever a woman to put that narrative out there into the public consciousness.<\/p>\n Elamin: Reanna, I find myself really reacting to divorce albums. I’m really interested in the mindset of an artist when they go into the studio, and enough of your life is public, and people know that the next thing you record is about this rupture.<\/p>\n I’m thinking here of Kelsea Ballerini, but also thinking here of Kacey Musgraves, a relatively public divorce \u2026. You can’t help but live in the idea that: \u201cI know these people from a distance as public figures. And now they get to comment on their life and the ways they\u2019re unfolding.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n When you think about this landscape of divorce albums, what do you think it is that we turn to divorce albums for? Because there is a salacious [element], but also sometimes to me, there’s the [idea of] how do these people move through a rupture like this?<\/p>\n Reanna: Yeah, I think there’s definitely a parasocial element to it. I think that’s totally part of it, part of the appeal. I remember \u2014 it’s not a divorce album \u2014 but when Lemonade came out by Beyonc\u00e9, right? I heard people pouring over every single lyric on that record.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elamin: \u201cHe did what? What happened in that elevator?\u201d Yes, 100 per cent.<\/p>\n Reanna: Beyonc\u00e9 and Jay-Z didn’t divorce. But the whole record is essentially about this \u201ccheating\u201d \u2014 narrative liberty \u2014 but cheating and the solution of trust in that relationship. So in a way, it’s a relationship record. But I think people listen to these records for info, for tea.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elamin: For tea, 100 per cent. Yes, let\u2019s be straight with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Reanna: But I think also when artists are so candid on the record and they strip the veil back and you see their true emotions that are lying underneath, what truly is going on in their life, I think people connect with that. And I think it could be a play at times to get your fanbase back on board with you, your fanbase to \u2014 I don\u2019t know \u2014 connect. People like breakup albums. In times of strife and trouble, people turn to these albums. And I think I could see [that] there’s somebody out there going through the exact same thing that Lily Allen is and listening to this record and being like, \u201cWow, I shouldn’t have done that open relationship. I feel seen.\u201d<\/p>\n You can listen to the full discussion from today’s show on CBC Listen<\/a> or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Panel produced by Simi Bassi.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lily Allen is back with her first new album in seven years, and the internet can\u2019t stop talking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":{"0":"post-251678","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}