Lily Allen's West End comeback

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. Hopper, now the adoptive father of the show’s main character, Eleven, played by Millie Bobby Brown, had a key role in the last series, but is now shown briefly in the background.

Further speculation about the timing of the new album is focusing on the forthcoming sale of the divorced couple’s former New York home. The 19th-century Brooklyn brownstone that they moved into in 2020 amid much social media fanfare, complete with a tour of its country-style kitchen and chintzy wallpapered lounge area, went on the market last week at $8m. For the cynical, at least, this was evidence that the album’s release was also intended to boost commercial interest in the house sale. West End Girls is Allen’s fifth album and, after reaching No 1 this weekend on the official downloads chart, is now her highest charting since Sheezus in 2014.

This weekend Allen announced she will be performing the album live in Britain in March, culminating in two dates at the London Palladium. The tour of the UK will follow the album’s physical release in January. Over 14 songs, West End Girl tells the story of a woman who embarks on family life in a new home in New York and then discovers evidence of her partner’s infidelity.

Allen has explained that her lyrics are not all taken from real life because she “wasn’t sure what was real, and what was in my head” as the marriage ended. A return to the London stage next year will be especially poignant for Allen, as the moment she was cast in the West End chiller 2:22: A Ghost Story four years ago was apparently pivotal in the change in her relationship with Harbour. The lyrics of one track, coupled with Allen’s own commentary on her personal life, indicate she felt Harbour was jealous that his wife had secured a leading West End role with no audition. He then suggested they move to an open relationshipAllen last toured between 2018 and 2019 after the release of her album No Shame. Since then, she has rarely been seen live, appearing in Glastonbury sets by Olivia Rodrigo and Shy FX.

Her tour begins in Glasgow, and includes Liverpool, Newcastle, Bristol and Cardiff, among other cities, before the two-date finale in London.

Photographs by Lexie Moreland/WWD via Getty Images, Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for SOLT