It was emotionally traumatic

PROCESSING THE MOST CHALLENGING TIME OF HER LIFE, THE SINGER REBOUNDS WITH A 'VULNERABLE' NEW RECORD

- Carolyn Hiblen

Lily Allen is back - and ready to reclaim her title as the original bad girl of pop. Seven years after she last hit the airwaves, and with plenty of material to draw on following the breakdown of her marriage to Stranger Things star David Harbour late last year and subsequent struggles with her mental health, the 40-year-old has channelled all her pain, anger and trauma into a certified sensation.

Her fifth studio album, West End Girl, dropped on October 24 with a mere four days' notice, marking her first offering since 2018 electropop/electro-R'n'B record No Shame. Having written and recorded all 14 tracks in just 10 days in December last year in Los Angeles, Allen put the finishing touches to it in London and New York, where she divides her time. Featuring pop-heavy tracks with heart-wrenching lyrics and searing vocals, and telling titles such as 'Sleepwalking', 'Relapse', 'Just Enough', 'Nonmonogamummy' and 'Beg for Me', Allen understandably calls it her most "vulnerable" album yet.

"I'm nervous," she said in a statement prior to the album's release. "The record is vulnerable in a way that my music perhaps hasn't been before - certainly not over the course of a whole album."