West End Girl is the fifth studio album by English singer-songwriter Lily Allen. The album was released on 24 October 2025, through BMG. It marks her first project in seven years and her first album following her departure from Parlophone.[2]West End Girl was primarily recorded in Los Angeles over ten days in December 2024, with additional production taking place in February 2025. The album was mainly written by Allen, who also co-produced the project alongside Seb Chew, Kito and Blue May, among others.[3] Lyrically, West End Girl reflects on the undoing of Allen's marriage to actor David Harbour, how she processed his alleged acts of infidelity, and her emotional response.[4][5]
Upon its release, West End Girl received acclaim from music critics, many of whom described it as lyrically honest and praised its narrative. Several publications named it one of the best albums of 2025. Commercially, the album peaked at number two on the UK Albums Chart, and reached the top ten in Australia, Ireland and New Zealand. Additionally, it was certified silver in the United Kingdom. The album's lead single, "Madeline", reached the top twenty on the UK Singles Chart, while the album track "Pussy Palace" peaked at number eight, becoming Allen's first top ten in the UK since 2014.[6] To promote the album, Allen is set to embark on a concert tour, Lily Allen Performs West End Girl, which will commence in March 2026.[7]
Background
Following the release of No Shame (2018), Allen met and married the actor David Harbour and moved to Brooklyn. She ventured away from music into other endeavours including stage acting, starring in the West End production 2:22 A Ghost Story (2021) and screen acting in Dreamland (2023).[5] Allen also launched the popular podcast Miss Me with Miquita Oliver.[5] In April 2019, Allen stated on Beats 1 radio that she was working on her next album, describing it as a concept album.[8] She later revealed in March 2020 that her new album features "odd mentions" of her past addictions, stating "This album I've been doing, I've been writing for just over a year, but I feel like I've moved on mentally so far from that time."[9]
Following a significant hiatus, Allen began writing consistently again in 2020, but suffered from writer's block, and felt dissatisfied with what she was creating.[5] In 2022, Allen recruited producer Blue May. The collaboration was described as a "complete failure" by the latter. During a two-month period in New York, the pair reportedly "barely wrote one song", with May noting that Allen was often absent from the studio.[10] Allen said of the five weeks in a music studio she had booked, that it felt "contrived" and that the music was not ready to be released.[11] In early 2024, she said she had recorded around fifty songs for her next music project, which she was still working on.[12] In the summer of 2024, Allen met May once more in Los Angeles, where she shared details about her personal life and discussed her interest in beginning writing and working with him again. Shortly after this, they met to start work on the album and schedule recording time.[13]
Writing and recording
West End Girl was created and recorded over a ten day period at Blue May's home in Los Angeles.[10] Unlike her previous work, which often featured one main producer, Allen wanted to include additional writers and producers in the album's creation.[13] Allen and May put together a team of writers, producers, and players that would come and go from the studio over the course of the ten days.[5] Co-executive producer, Kito,[14] along with Allen and May, produced all the album's tracks, whilst Allen collaborated on the songwriting with Hayley Gene Penner, Chloe Angelides and Violet Skies. On the first day of recording, Allen presented eighteen song titles and a vision for a chronological album.[10] "Just Enough" was the first song to be written for the album, and was completed within three hours. The song was inspired by the Elvis Presley song, "Can't Help Falling in Love", and written by Allen as she was sharing her relationship details with May, Kito and Angelides.[13] That same day, the group completed writing and recording "Tennis".[10]
Welsh songwriter Violet Skies joined the group in the studio for four days and co-wrote six of the albums songs: "Madeline", "Sleepwalking", "Let You Win", "Dallas Major", "Relapse" and "Beg for Me".[14] Skies described the process as playing "tennis" with Allen, in which they would go back and forth on potential lyrics, or Allen would write streams of thought that the two would then organise.[15] "Madeline" and "Relapse" were written on the same day, the latter being completed during an evening studio session. The structure of "Madeline" was inspired by Dolly Parton's single “Jolene” and a story Allen shared about an email exchange she had with a woman. Additionally, during the writing of "Madeline", Allen put on an American accent and impersonated said woman, which was used on the final track.[13] Fourteen out of the eighteen track titles Allen brought on the first day were completed by the end of the ten days. Allen and May agreed to return to the studio in February, for six days, to complete the four remaining titles. May invited along two new collaborators; Hayley Gene Penner and Alessandro Buccellati, to work with Allen.[13] When the group met in February, they completed the album's opening track, "West End Girl", and "Ruminating", with the remaining songs being scrapped.[13]
May wanted to use the album's production to convey the lyrics emotional quality and storytelling.[13] The album's tracks, such as "Tennis", utilise a mellow soul music backdrop to depict a domestic scene, while "Madeline" incorporates explicit sound effects, such as gun sounds, to represent a dramatic scene.[13] The production of tracks such as "Dallas Major" attempted to capture the feeling of a '90s New York club through incorporating disco music influences, reflecting the song's lyrics which see Allen make the decision to re-enter the dating scene. For songs focused on internal states, such as "Ruminating," the sound design intensifies emotion; using a sped-up, looping drumbeat from a Korg Triton keyboard to mimic the obsessive thought process of Allen receiving difficult news.[13]
Composition
West End Girl was noted for its narrative arc and song cycle format.[1][16][17] Allen stated that the lyrics draw on real experiences from her marriage, but that the album "could be considered autofiction" and that she used "artistic licence".[4][5][18] For instance, she described Madeline, who appears in two songs, as a fictional character who is a construct of others.[18] A predominately pop album, West End Girl incorporates an eclectic mix of genres including dancehall, electronic, R&B, 2-step garage, and Latin pop. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian noted that the albums story ties the songs and mix of sounds together.[1]
The album title and opening track reference Allen's time acting on the West End (pictured) in London.
The title track "West End Girl" opens the album and features "dreamy, musical theatre-inspired" production.[19] It tells the story of Allen moving to New York following her wedding and flying back to the UK after getting a role in a London play. At the end of the song, she receives a phone call with only her side of the conversation audible, reluctantly agreeing to her husband's request for an open marriage.[16] "Ruminating" is built over "trebly synths" and heavily auto-tuned vocals,[1] with lyrics about overthinking.[17] The 1950s music-inspired "Sleepwalking" discusses feeling trapped and gaslit in a relationship.[16][17]
In "Tennis", Allen attempts to have a normal meal with her family until she finds a text on her husband's phone from a woman named Madeline and repeatedly demands to know who she is.[16] It is followed by "Madeline", a song with flamenco and spaghetti Western influences.[20] Earning comparisons to Dolly Parton's "Jolene", it finds Allen confronting her husband's mistress, who responds with platitudes in a Valley girl accent.[16][20] "Relapse" draws on two-step garage.[1] It details Allen's struggle with maintaining her sobriety amidst her marriage difficulties over an "arrhythmic beat".[16] "Pussy Palace" sees her throwing her husband out of the marital home and sending him away to his separate apartment, which she assumed was a dojo. When she goes there to leave something for him, she instead discovers numerous items such as sex toys and hundreds of condoms that lead her to question whether he is a sex addict.[20][21]
In "4chan Stan", Allen mocks her husband with references to the imageboard website 4chan over "wistful" production.[1][5] "Nonmonogamummy", a dancehall-infused collaboration with Specialist Moss, discusses dating as a woman in her late thirties and people pleasing.[1][19] The ballad "Just Enough", with "lush strings" inspired by old Hollywood, finds Allen wondering whether her husband fathered a child with another woman.[19][20] In the soul-pop "Dallas Major",[22] she assumes the name on a dating app but dislikes the experience.[1] "Beg for Me" uses a slowed down sample of Lumidee's song "Never Leave You (Uh Oooh, Uh Oooh)".[22] Its lyrics detail what Allen wants in a relationship.[19] "Let You W/In" discusses the end of her marriage with a "no-nonsense" attitude.[19][22] In the closing track "Fruityloop", Allen makes tentative peace with the events described on West End Girl with a reference to her second album It's Not Me, It's You (2009).[5]
On 20 October 2025, Allen announced that her fifth studio album, West End Girl, would be released four days later.[23]West End Girl was released for streaming on 24 October 2025, on BMG, Allen's first album in seven years[2] and her first release outside Parlophone, her old label. It is scheduled to be released on CD and LP in January 2026. The album cover and illustrations were created by Spanish artist Nieves González.[24][25] González was inspired specifically 16th and 17th-century painting, notably iconography of saints and martyrs, which Laura Martin of Esquire noted for being similar to the work of 17th-century Dutch artist Rembrandt.[26] The creative team aimed for a classical styled cover featuring contemporary elements; therefore, the jacket and the polka dots were utilised as key features.[26]
Following its release, West End Girl and its personal content generated significant discussion online.[27] The online conversation led some social media users to criticise Harbour, and call for a boycott of his show Stranger Things.[27] Internet users analysed the former couple's content, including their Architectural Digest home tour, notes Allen had received from Harbour, and investigated Allen's past statements about infidelity inspiring her earlier album, No Shame.[27] Streams of the album doubled in its first week of release, and discoveries of Allen on Spotify reached 100,000 a day, which The Hollywood Reporter noted was due to the online interest.[28]
"Madeline" was serviced as the album's first single to British radio a week after its release.[29] To further promote West End Girl, Allen is set to embark on her fifth concert tour, "Lily Allen Performs West End Girl", in March 2026, having announced it on 30 October 2025. The tour will take place in theatres across the United Kingdom including the London Palladium, and is set to be performed chronologically.[30] Due to high demand, in November 2025, a second leg was added to the tour for June 2026 which is set to be performed at arena venues including The O2.[31]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, West End Girl received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 84 out of 100 from eighteen critic scores.[33] The review aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it a weighted average score of 7.8 out of 10 from eighteen critic scores.[32]
In a five-star review for The Independent, Hannah Ewens said West End Girl was "a brutal, tell-all masterpiece", naming it as her best work since It's Not Me, It's You. Ewens said that the "intense story-driven format lets her sound sharper, smarter, and more clear-eyed than before". Ewens contrasted the album to other divorce albums like Beyoncé's Lemonade and Adele's 30, arguing that its fast turnaround allowed Allen to seize control of her narrative and hold little back.[20] Ali Shutler of NME hailed the album as "a vicious, vulnerable and victorious comeback". Shutler said that "there's a lot of grief and misery across West End Girl, but it never sounds depressing", attributing it to Allen's long-held "knack for making devastation sound exciting".[19]
Writing in The Guardian, Alexis Petridis noted the album's "boldness, and the quality of its songwriting" as well as "the striking prettiness of its tunes", calling West End Girl "a divorce album like no other" which "would be a great pop album regardless of the subject matter".[1] However, Petridis added that "there are moments when you find yourself wondering if airing this much dirty laundry can possibly be a good idea, impeccably written and laced with mordant wit though the lyrics are".[1]
In the United Kingdom, West End Girl debuted at number four on the UK Albums Chart on downloads alone with physical copies not available until January 2026. It was her highest-charting album in eleven years. It was the most streamed digital-only release by a British artist in 2025 in its opening week and was also the country's most-downloaded album that week, debuting at number one on the Official Albums Downloads Chart.[41] The album climbed to number two on the UK charts the following week, remaining the most streamed album of the week.[42]
Upon the album's release, three of its tracks, "Pussy Palace", "West End Girl", and "Madeline", charted within the top twenty of the UK singles chart,[43] with "Pussy Palace" subsequently becoming Allen's first top 10 since "Air Balloon" (2014).[44]
↑Solomon-Brady, Harvey (20 October 2025). "Lily Allen: West End Girl". Why Now. UK. Retrieved 26 October 2025. The cover art and illustrations come from Spanish artist Nieves González.
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