What is the most devastating part of Lily Allen ’s new album, West End Girl ? Is it when its narrator submits to the open marriage her husband has requested, even though it makes her “really fucking sad”? Is it when she stays up all night in London, thinking about him in New York, and his question, “if it has to happen baby do you want to know?”

Is it when she reads his texts? When she calls his mistress to find out if it was more than just sex? When she finds the bag of butt plugs at his apartment? When she fears she might be relapsing into drink and drugs? When she cries, in a gnarly, dissociative autotune, “The girls are looking at me to teach them all about love, but I can’t seem to hold myself together long enough”?

West End Girl is a stunning record – the unravelling of a “mod

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