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Lily Allen’s new album ‘West End Girl’ is an honest account of her separation from David Harbour. She references infidelity in extremely raw, authentic detail, and an inevitable online backlash has ensued. Do artists have any responsibility for the effects their work will have on those they reference?
‘West End Girl’ is Lily Allen’s fifth studio album following a seven year hiatus.
In that time, Allen has become a critically acclaimed actress, having starred in 2:22 A Ghost Story in 2021 as the lead character Jenny and in 2023’s The Pillowman at the Duke Of York’s Theatre in London. She also met and married Stranger Things star David Harbour in 2020, before separating at the end of 2024 due to alleged infidelity.
Allen’s latest record revolves around these life events, outlining the mistrust between her and Harbour and the eventual breakdown of their relationship in excruciating detail.
Throughout the project’s fourteen tracks, Allen sings candidly about opening up her marriage, finding text exchanges between Harbour and a woman called Madeline, calling the relationship off, later deciding to tell her two teenage children the separation was ‘mutual,’ as well as discovering a barrage of sex toys in a separate apartment across town.
‘West End Girl’ plays like a scrappy diary, stuffed with messy thoughts and angry musings as Allen contemplates divorce and the baggage of falling into your forties without a life plan.
It is a compelling album, full of drippy pop beats and delicate vocals, bubbling with earnest angst that props Allen’s marriage up for public scrutiny.
We’re invited to hear about everything in all its messy, ugly specifics, from video call transcripts to Harbour supposedly shagging other women in the couple’s Brooklyn home while Allen was in London.
She leaves nothing unturned. Harbour is blasted without ever being mentioned by name, leaving listeners to fill in the gaps and put the pieces together for themselves.
The ensuing backlash toward the Stranger Things star since the album’s release has been intense and inevitable.
Harbour has turned off the comments on all of his Instagram posts. Tabloid websites have unsurprisingly run with stories surrounding the personal lives of both parties. Gossip and animosity is currently rife wherever comment sections are open, be it Reddit, old YouTube clips, or Instagram Reels.
Much like other pop star fandoms, Lily’s confessions and insights across ‘West End Girl’ have spurred listeners to target Harbour with criticism and personal attacks.
While not directly Allen’s fault, her art has encouraged audiences to take sides, highlighting some of the problems that can arise from our parasocial connections to celebrities.
How much responsibility should artists have for their audiences? In our age of conversational social media followings, should musicians be tied to any sense of moral obligation when putting real people on blast? How might it affect their creative process?
Should celebrities be put on public trial with no real way of defending themselves, or can we leave the integrity of artistic expression in the hands of listeners?
Lily isn’t the first artist to lay their soul bare on wax and she won’t be the last – but the fallout for the individuals that these emotions are centred around can be visceral and all encompassing.
Blurring the lines between art, fiction, and reality
Interestingly, Allen has made a point to mention that the album shouldn’t be taken ‘for gospel,’ which journalists have already noted could be a means of protecting herself legally should any lawsuits arise.
This preemptive, protective stance demonstrates how art can encourage musicians to embellish details for the sake of a narrative. Understanding what is real and what is dramatised is usually impossible; listeners are at the mercy of the perspective presented to them.
By that same token, art should never be policed for the sake of supposed ‘authenticity,’ particularly when nothing can be verified and everyone’s experiences are subjective. This is Lily’s album, not Harbour’s, and she is well within her rights to represent her life events in any way she chooses.
Issues arise, however, when these creative expressions are translated over to the real world, where fans harass individuals based on descriptions within songs and believe they have the full picture despite not personally knowing anyone involved.
Just a brief glance through Reddit this week, for example, will provide you with plenty of opinions on Harbour that have arisen directly as a result of ‘West End Girl.’
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‘Kind of depressing that the reason he brought so much gravitas to that [Stranger Things] role as a broken, divorced, sad, ugly, alcoholic, pathetic sort of figure is that he is exactly that person in real life,’ wrote one commentator.
Another wrote, ‘women making David Harbour a “hear me out” guy when Stranger Things came out definitely went to his head.’
Art may exist for art’s sake, but it can cause problems when listeners don’t acknowledge the parasocial dynamic they have with the musicians they love and make judgements based on songs and albums alone.
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The similarly-loaded Beyonce album ‘Lemonade’ comes to mind when listening to ‘West End Girl’.
Released in 2016, the record dives into allegations of cheating, with Beyonce calling out a mistress named Becky who Jay Z supposedly had an affair with. The response from fans was vicious.
Jay Z released his own project in 2017 titled ‘4:44’ that addressed some of the events that took place and the two remain a couple to this day; a celebrity marital feud makes for good publicity and both albums sold incredibly well.
This artistic back and forth remains a cultural moment within music for good reason, but also reflects the chaotic social media world that is now intrinsically tied to pop artists.
By putting their marital woes out into the open, Beyonce and Jay Z’s troubles became public property. Everyone had an opinion. Fans harassed anyone they believed to be Becky online. Celebrities had to publicly confirm they weren’t the one being talked about on ‘Lemonade.’
It became a circus.
Similarly, Eminem put his ex-wife on blast constantly on his first few records. She was called out by name, regularly insulted in his lyrics, and had a song dedicated to her that brutally described her fictional murder in a forest.
She has been a target of fan derision ever since and was even driven to attempted suicide as a result of Eminem mocking her on stage in 2000.
Now, I’m not saying that Lily Allen expressing anger at being cheated on utilises anywhere near the same level of creative violence as Eminem.
Where all of these examples do share similarities is in their depiction of actual people within popular albums where it’s tricky to decipher fact from fiction. Music is interpretive and lyricism can be a tool to vent frustrations and emotion, but it is not usually a two way dialogue.
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