In “West End Girl,” Allen tells a brutal story of marital turmoil and betrayal, portraying her muse as an emotionally manipulative sex addict.
“Who said romance isn’t dead? Been no romance since we wed,” she sings in track three, “Sleepwalking.” In several other songs, including “Ruminating,” “Tennis,” and “4chan Stan,” she alludes to catching her husband being intimate with other women, crossing boundaries they’d agreed upon.
“We had an arrangement / Be discreet and don’t be blatant / There had to be payment / It had to be with strangers / But you’re not a stranger,” she sings in track five, “Madeline.” Two songs later, Allen seems to accuse Harbour of keeping a separate apartment in the West Village expressly for affairs, and describes finding sex toys and “hundreds” of condoms hidden there.
In interviews, Allen has described the album as semi-autobiographical. (She has also begun referring to Harbour as her ex-husband, per British Vogue, though no divorce filings have yet been made public.)
Read the full article here
