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"Really hard to articulate" - Saturday Night Live Musical Guest Lily Allen uses new album 'West End Girl' to share personal feelings
Lily Allen uses her new album West End Girl to share personal experiences through music. She performed as Saturday Night Live Musical Guest on December 13.
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Lily Allen appears on stage in 2.22 - A GHOST STORY; a new play by Danny Robbins directed by Matthew Dunster on now in London's West End at Noel Coward Theatre on August 05, 2021 in London, England (Image via Getty)English singer-songwriter Lily Allen, who performed as a Saturday Night Live Musical Guest on December 13, explained that her new album, West End Girl, served as a way to communicate experiences she had difficulty sharing verbally.
"I think a lot of the things that I was going through in my personal life, I'd found really hard to articulate to my friends and my family," she stated.
Allen said that the structure of a three-minute pop song allowed her to present her feelings with "a beginning, a middle, and an end."
Songwriting process and inspiration
Allen described the album's creation process in a CBS Mornings interview, saying she wrote it in December 2024.
She explained that some of those days lasted 12 to 14 hours and that the process was both "frantic" and "joyful at the same time," citing support from the people present during production.
The album includes 18 tracks, all titled before lyrics were written, reflecting the narrative she intended to develop. Allen stated,
"I think I was trying to tell a story to process things, and there were things that had been going on in my life that I knew would suit a record like this."
Regarding external perceptions, Allen told Vogue that while the album followed the timing of her divorce from actor David Harbour, "that's not to say that it's all gospel," and added that the album was "inspired" by her life.
She also commented on the album's release, saying it felt "liberating" and that it "said everything that I needed to say."
Autofiction and lyric content
Allen discussed the balance between real-life events and fictional elements in her music.
In an interview with Perfect Magazine, she stated the album could be described as "autofiction," blending truth with artistic liberties. She elaborated,
"I do think it could be considered autofiction. I also think that what was going on in my life was really confusing, because I didn't actually know what was going on in my life. I wasn't sure what was real, and what was in my head."
Specific lyrics in West End Girl reflect Allen's combination of real-life experiences and fictional elements.
For instance, the character Madeline, mentioned in the songs Tennis and Madeline, is described by Allen as a fictional "character," and does not necessarily represent any one real person.
She told The Times that she could not confirm all events in the album as factual.
Allen detailed that she used artistic license in her lyrics but also admitted that a few pieces of her personal relationship had been injected into the words and had an influence on the album's storyline.
In addition, Allen included references to acquaintances in minor ways. She mentioned a friend named Billy Cotton, who designed her house in Brooklyn, and noted that he is referenced in the song West End Girl.
Allen mentioned a friend named Billy Cotton, who designed her house in Brooklyn, and noted that he is referenced in the song West End Girl.
Personal expression through music
Allen discussed her use of music as a channel for personal expression in The Times, saying,
"I hide in music. It is the musical version of what I do in my life."
In the process of making the record, she said to Vogue that she went through a mix of emotions such as confusion, sorrow, grief, and helplessness, but still, the work mirrored her as she stated that it sounds like her "voice" and when she hears it, she sees it as her.
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TOPICS: Saturday Night Live Musical Guest Lily Allen, Saturday Night Live, Saturday Night Live Season 51, Lily Allen, Saturday Night Live Lily Allen