Breaking up and breaking records with a divorce hit

Lily Allen's post-divorce album, West End Girl, is already breaking records and is likely to shatter more. Greeted with widespread critical acclaim, it is the UK's most downloaded album of the week and the most streamed digital-only release by a British artist in an opening week this year.

- Vanessa Thorpe

The album has been praised by reviewers for its creative bravery, raw emotion and sharp lyrics, and has spread swiftly through more unexpected age demographics, picking up positive appreciations from older, established male pundits.

Reactions on social media and music sites also show that a core fanbase of women in their late 30s and 40s have been drawn to its themes of betrayal, gaslighting and the stripping away of the mythology of a “cool girl” who can remain emotionally invulnerable. Actor and Goop founder Gwyneth Paltrow hailed it as a “masterpiece”.

Its release followed a seven-year break from the recording studio for Allen, 40, and is now the subject of intense analysis online. Music critics and fans are dissecting what its lyrics reveal about Allen's recent breakup from her second husband, the Stranger Things actor David Harbour.

The comeback album was recorded over 10 vape-fuelled days, with some later polishing, in December 2024 in Los Angeles, where Allen worked alongside music director and friend Blue May in intense sessions that the singer has revealed were punctuated by tears.

This weekend the Netflix trailer for the final season of Stranger Things has prompted suspicions that Allen might have timed the release of the album to sabotage the publicity for the series that made her ex-husband famous. Harbour, 50, is hardly visible in the new trailer, appearing only twice in shot as police chief Jim Hopper, despite playing the popular character since the show aired in 2016.