Fans have done a full autopsy of Lily Allen’s latest album, which appears to unravel the cheating, gaslighting, and non-monogamous aspects of her failed marriage with David Harbour.
The 40-year-old singer dropped West End Girl, her first album in seven years, on Friday, October 24.
One fan account has shared a detailed interpretation of the story Lily has woven through the 14 tracks in the album.
Highlights
- Lily Allen dropped ‘West End Girl,’ her first album in seven years on Friday, October 24.
- A complete autopsy of the album was shared online by a fan account
- The lyrics alluded to the alleged cheating, gaslighting, and the non-monogamous aspects of her marriage to David Harbour.
Fans have done a full autopsy of Lily Allen’s latest album
Image credits: Getty/James Devaney
To fans, Lily Allen’s latest album West End Girl sounded like she was reading the pages of her diary out loud for the world to hear.
The singer told The Times that she wrote the album in just 10 days when she was “really depressed” last December.
The album was released about a year after she and David confirmed their breakup.
Image credits: Instagram/lilyallen
The songs on the album almost chronologically dived into how her marriage allegedly fell apart, according to fan theories online.
One fan account named “Decade Scrolling” has revealed a detailed “interpretation of the story told in Lily Allen’s West End Girl.”
The 14-track album alludes to the alleged cheating, gaslighting, and non-monogamous aspects of the singer’s marriage with David Harbour
Image credits: Getty/MEGA
The album opens with West End Girl, in which the narrator of the song (Lily herself) sings about moving to New York to start a new life, the fan account explained.
Lily did in fact move to New York to start a new life with the Stranger Things actor, whom she met on the celebrity dating app Raya in 2019 and tied the knot with in 2020.
The lyrics then seemingly referenced Lily’s leading role in the London play 2:22 – A Ghost Story.
Image credits: Getty/WWD
“Later that evening you said how was my day / I said, ‘I got some good news, I got the lead in a play,’” she sang. “That's when your demeanour started to change / You said that I'd have to audition, I said ‘You're deranged.’”
In the fan account’s explanation, they accused the partner of being “annoyed” that she “didn’t need to audition.”
The tweet also included a note that David had reportedly written at the time, in which he said: “My ambitious wife, there are bad luck flowers ‘cause if you get reviewed well in this play, you will get all kinds of awards and I will be miserable. Your loving husband.”
Image credits: CarrieC1981
The singer sang about staying up all night, thinking about her husband with his mistress
Image credits: Instagram/lilyallen
In the lyrics, Lily sang about the partner’s behavior being “quite strange,” but the song’s heroine ignored the feeling because she became a “West End Girl.”
The track, Ruminating, sees Lily singing about staying up all night, unable to “shake the image” of her husband with his mistress.
She continues to share similar thoughts in Sleepwalking, singing about a man who “won't love” his wife but also “won't leave” her.
Image credits: Heeheeriah
Image credits: lauslauus
Image credits: DecadeScrolling
The track Tennis seemingly alludes to how Lily busted her husband’s affair with a woman named Madeline.
“It was how you grabbed your phone back right out of my hands,” she sang. “So I read your text, and now I regret it / I can't get my head round how you've been playing tennis / If it was just se*, I wouldn't be jealous / You won't play with me and who's Madeline?”
Since the album's release, Lily claimed that Madeline was a fictional character constructed from several different people.
The track Madeline hints at an “agreement” the couple had about their “open” marriage
Image credits: Instagram/lilyallen
On the track Madeline, the lyrics hint at an “agreement” the couple had about their “open” marriage.
“How long has it been going on? Is it just se* or is there emotion? / He told me it would stay in hotel rooms, never be out in the open,” read the lyrics. “ … We had an arrangement / Be discrete and don't be blatant.”
According to the theory posted on the fan account, Lily texted “Madeline” to “find out what’s really going on.”
Image credits: Instagram/lilyallen
“How could she trust Dave? He lied to her. He lied to Madeline. Could she trust Madeline? They had an arrangement - it had to be with strangers. His relationship with Madeline was something more serious,” the fan wrote.
The lyrics spoke about the partner developing an emotional attachment to his other partners, seemingly breaking the boundaries of their “open marriage” arrangement.
The song P**sy Palace has the singer questioning whether the partner was a “se* addict”
Image credits: AD
The protagonist’s story continues in the song Relapse, which was believed to be Lily singing about coming close to relapsing after years of sobriety.
“She wants to escape, she wants to be numb. But she knows she can’t go back to that life - ‘she stands to lose it all,’” the fan account said.
The next song on the album, P**sy Palace, sees the woman dropping off her partner’s clothes and medicine to their West Village apartment, only to find that their home was turned into a den for the alleged “se* addict.”
Image credits: Instagram/lilyallen
“Se* toys, bu*t plugs, lube inside / Hundreds of Trojans, you're so f***ing broken / How'd I get caught up in your double life?” she sang.
She questioned whether the partner was a “se* addict” in the song.
Fans believe Lily sings about being in an open marriage even though she doesn’t want one in the song nonmonogamummy
Image credits: X/DecadeScrolling
The fan account claimed that Lily goes on to sing about her husband being “obsessed with se* but has no respect for women” in the song 4chan stan.
The X thread goes on to offer an explanation for her song nonmonogamummy.
Image credits: X/DecadeScrolling
“Last year, as she approaches 40, Lily reaches a f*** it moment. She considers making the relationship mutually open and becoming a ‘nonmonogamummy’ even though she doesn’t want anyone other than Dave,” the fan said.
Following the track nonmonogamummy was Just Enough, which the fan believed was a detailed description of how the partner would give her “just enough” to keep her trapped in a loveless marriage.
In one song, Lily sings about a partner giving “Just Enough” to keep her stuck in a loveless marriage
Next on the album was the song Dallas Major, which the fan claimed saw Lily creating an online persona to be discreet on her dating profile.
“Dave uses a cartoon of his most famous character on his profile. Lily hates being back in this online dating world but she is looking for the validation she so desperately wants from her husband,” the fan wrote.
Image credits: Getty/Michael Simon
The next song, Beg For Me, allegedly has clues of Lily staying in an “imbalanced marriage” and asking her husband for “at least the bare minimum,” the fan wrote.
“Lily has started to accept that this marriage can’t be saved in Let You W/In. She’s given & tried so much but only she is suffering,” the X user wrote. “David gets all the benefits: perfect wife, two kids, beautiful home, & can f*** any wannabe influencer on Raya or costume designer.”
The fan believed the song Fruityloop was the “perfect conclusion” to the album and the relationship
Image credits: Instagram/lilyallen
The final song Fruityloop was described by the fan as the “perfect conclusion” to the album and the relationship.
“Lily has reached a point where she can see ‘it’s not me, it’s you,’” the fan wrote. “She wishes she could fix Dave and break the cycle, but the only one who can do that is Dave.”
Lily sings, “It's not me, it's you” in the final song and there’s nothing she can do to fix her partner.
“Wish I could fix all your shit, but all your shit's yours to fix / 'Cause it's not me, it's you,” she sang.
“It's not me, it's you / And there is nothing I could do, you're stuck inside your fruity loop / There is nothing I could do, you're stuck inside your fruity loop,” she continued.
Netizens had strong reactions to the messages included in the West End Girl album
Image credits: NoReallyICant
Image credits: DorothyNotD
Image credits: lottebettsdean
Image credits: LetsTalk0316
Image credits: AlbeBle
Image credits: LetsTalk0316
Image credits: lntltcl
Image credits: MaelleBernard20
Image credits: mizzjmidge
Image credits: cullenbohannons
Image credits: God_Got_Tee
Image credits: noemie_marie
Image credits: DaDude2076
Image credits: Politrix6
Image credits: ssie_bannion
Image credits: 444_444_444_
Image credits: al32302
Image credits: Constantin20541
Image credits: mindfullyraging