{"id":250443,"date":"2025-10-25T09:24:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/250443\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T09:24:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T09:24:12","slug":"it-was-hard-to-make-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/250443\/","title":{"rendered":"‘It was hard to make this’"},"content":{"rendered":"

British singer Lily Allen released West End Girl on Friday, her first studio album since 2018\u2019s No Shame. The 14-track album, which was announced on Monday<\/a>, was written in just 10 days last December.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was hard to make this record,\u201d Allen told Perfect magazine<\/a>. \u201cIt was incredibly manic, and it was emotionally traumatic.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Allen has not publicly specified or stated who or what the album is about, earlier this year she announced she was separating<\/a> from her husband, Stranger Things actor David Harbour, after tying the knot in Las Vegas in 2020<\/a>. She told Perfect magazine that writing the songs was her way of processing what she was going through privately.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just sort of fell out of me,\u201d Allen said. \u201cI think when I struggle with writing it\u2019s because I\u2019m worried about how things are going to be perceived or how things are going to be consumed. \u2026 This record was purely for me, and it was a way of processing things that I was going through in my private life.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lyrics emulate these feelings of \u201cconfusion, sorrow, grief, helplessness\u201d that Allen said she was experiencing at the time, according to British Vogue<\/a>. In \u201cRuminating<\/a>,\u201d Allen sings about losing sleep over envisioning someone she loves having a relationship with another woman: \u201cI can\u2019t shake the image of her naked\/ On top of you, and I\u2019m dissociated,\u201d and then \u201cDid you kiss her on the lips and look into her eyes? Now that it\u2019s done\/ Baby, won\u2019t you tell me that I\u2019m still your number one?\u201d<\/p>\n

On the song \u201cMadeline<\/a>,\u201d she confronts the other woman \u2014 who she calls \u201cMadeline\u201d \u2014 after finding out Madeline has been seeing someone she loves behind her back: \u201cSaw your text, that\u2019s how I found out, tell me the truth and his motives\/ I can\u2019t trust anything that comes out of his mouth\/ How long has it been going on?\u201d<\/p>\n

In the ninth track, \u201cNonmonogamummy<\/a>,\u201d she again talks about prioritizing this person she loves in her life, but feeling like it\u2019s not being reciprocated: \u201cI\u2019m so committed that I\u2019d lose myself cause I don\u2019t want to lose you, you, you\/ I changed my immigration status for you to treat me like a stranger\/ Why do I feel like such a failure?\u201d<\/p>\n

What inspired the album?<\/p>\n

While the songs draw from themes of heartbreak and self-reflection, Allen has offered limited details about the experiences that shaped them.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are definitely some things that happened in my real life that are reflected on this record,\u201d Allen told Perfect magazine when the interviewer mentioned breakups. \u201cI don\u2019t know what I can say. Two people who were once together are not together. And that\u2019s really sad.\u201d<\/p>\n

In December 2024, while speaking on her BBC podcast, Miss Me?, Allen said she was going through a \u201ctough time,\u201d but didn\u2019t elaborate. She said she was having problems that she said were affecting her mental health, and she had stopped eating. She took a break from her podcast<\/a> in January, before fully stepping away<\/a> in September due to \u201cfocus on some other stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

In terms of her album, Allen told British Vogue, \u201cThere are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that\u2019s not to say that it\u2019s all gospel. \u2026 It is inspired by what went on in the relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British singer Lily Allen released West End Girl on Friday, her first studio album since 2018\u2019s No Shame.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[136491,88,136490,216,54342],"class_list":{"0":"post-250443","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-british-vogue","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-lily-allen","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-studio-album"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}