Lily Allen on how ‘West End Girl’ was inspired by The Streets’ ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’

Lily Allen has revealed that ‘West End Girl’ was inspired by The Streets‘ ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’, saying that the latter album is “like a movie”.

• READ MORE: Lily Allen – ‘West End Girl’ review: a vicious, vulnerable and victorious comeback

The singer released her long-awaited fifth record last Friday (October 24), just four days after announcing the “vulnerable” surprise project. It follows on from her 2018 LP, ‘No Shame’.

‘West End Girl’, which comprises 14 songs, was written and recorded in just 10 days following the breakdown of the artist’s marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour, after he allegedly cheated on her.

During a new conversation with Interview magazine, Allen spoke about the experience of creating the LP with co-producer and co-writer Blue May. Recalling the process, she said she was “vaping and smoking cigarettes at the time”. Allen added that there was “lots of crying, lots of storytelling”, too.

“I was processing a long relationship, and so things I hadn’t really considered before were coming up and I was like, ‘Do you think that when this was happening?’,” she continued.

When asked what happened once she and May got into the studio, Allen shouted out Mike Skinner‘s classic second album, which was released in 2004. The project arrived two years before Allen emerged with her debut, ‘Alright, Still’.

“There’s an album I love called ‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ by The Streets, and it’s like a movie from start to finish,” she explained.

“Each song can stand alone and make total sense, but together it’s more like a novel. I’ve always wanted to do that, and it just happened that way on this record.”

Allen went on: “The night before I went into the studio, I wrote 18 track titles – no melodies, no lyrics. Nobody in the studio knew what was going on in my life. I got there, spent about two hours crying my 147 heart out, and then I was like, ‘We’re going to write an album based on some of these feelings’.

“There were markers that I wanted to hit to give it a beginning, middle, and end.”

In 2018, Allen opened up about her past relationship and backstage fight with Mike Skinner in her memoir My Thoughts Exactly. “We didn’t actually have sex,” Allen wrote. “But we had a great time and I fell in love with him.

“That’s what I thought, at least, and if you believe you’re in love, even when it’s based on fantasy, it feels vital and urgent to be with that person. But once we got back to England, Mike Skinner didn’t want to be with me at all.”

The pair also engaged in spats on Twitter in the ’00s, with Skinner accusing Allen of “loving” the paparazzi attention she complained about on social media.

‘A Grand Don’t Come For Free’ peaked at Number One on the UK albums chart, and earned a glowing 9/10 review from NME. It read: “Some critics have compared the music of The Streets to the films of Ken Loach, a director who has made a career out of selling working-class misery as a form of redemption for middle-class viewers. But what makes humans human is our ability to triumph over adversity. The humour within everyday life (the reason why Coronation Street will always be better than EastEnders, no arguments at the back) is apparent within Skinner’s craft.”

The record contains the hit singles ‘Fit But You Know It’, ‘Dry Your Eyes’ and ‘Blinded By The Lights’. Earlier this month, The Streets announced that they would be performing ‘A Grand…’ in full for the first time on a UK tour next year. In a statement, Skinner said the era was “a moment in time – for me, and for everyone who grew up with it”.

He added: “I wrote it as a story from beginning to end, even studying screenwriting to shape it and without the faintest idea how people would react.”

Meanwhile, Allen has insisted that ‘West End Girl’ is “not a cruel album” and said she wasn’t seeking “revenge”. She explained that she was no longer “confused or angry” about the circumstances that inspired the album.

In a four-star review, NME described ‘West End Girl’ as “a sleek, smart collection that sees Allen back at her very best”. It hailed the singer’s “pop hooks and brutal honesty”, and called the LP “a slow-burn break-up album with Allen taking heavy inspiration from her own life”.

The LP tackles Allen’s “deep-rooted issues with rejection and abandonment” in the wake of her divorce. Elsewhere, a woman who is said to have inspired her new song ‘Madeline’ has come forward following her affair with David Harbour. However, Allen revealed in an interview with The Sunday Times that ‘Madeline’ was a fictional character who was a “construct of others”.

In other news, the NYC townhouse owned by Allen and Harbour has been listed for sale just days after the release of her new album.

Additionally, the singer has discussed her OnlyFans foot account, saying that “it wasn’t that fun” once she broke up with her ex-husband.

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