Lily Allen Releasing First New Album in Seven Years, West End Girl, This Week
Lily Allen has announced her first album in seven years: West End Girl is out this Friday, October 24, via BMG. Its 14 songs were mostly written by Allen and her musical director, Blue May, and the pair executive-produced the LP alongside Seb Chew and Kito. Below, check out Spanish artist Nieves González’s cover art.
In a press release, Allen said, “I’m nervous. The record is vulnerable in a way that my music perhaps hasn’t been before—certainly not over the course of a whole album. I’ve tried to document my life in a new city and the events that led me to where I am in my life now. At the same time, I’ve used shared experiences as the basis for songs which try to delve into why we humans behave as we do, so the record is a mixture of fact and fiction which I hope serves as a reminder of how stoic yet also how frail we humans can be. In that respect I think it’s very much an album about the complexities of relationships and how we all navigate them. It’s a story…”
Since her last album, 2018’s No Shame, Allen has appeared in various West End London theater productions and co-founded the podcast Miss Me.

“这张专辑基本上是在一种紧迫的状态下诞生的，它就像一股激烈的洪流从我心中奔涌而出。”谈及 Florence + the Machine 的第六张专辑《Everybody Scream》，Florence Welch 告诉 Apple Music，“这是一张如果我现在不发表就可能永远不会问世的专辑。因为我对很多事情的感受只属于当下那个特定的时刻，它们只在当下爆发出来。这张专辑几乎是我心理调节、自我疗愈的一种方式。”

而 Welch 所说的“当下”，是指乐队的《Dance Fever》巡演期间。“实际上，我在舞台上经历了宫外孕流产，情况非常危险，我不得不住院治疗并立即接受手术，因为我腹腔里有整整一听可乐那么多的血。”她解释道。这场突如其来的病痛与随之而来的情绪，催生了《Everybody Scream》，使这张专辑对她本人与听众而言，都成为了一次难忘的宣泄体验。“我感觉自己完全无法控制身体，这很奇妙。我探讨了巫术和神秘主义，在所有涉及生育的地方，你都会发现巫术、民俗恐怖和神话的影子。”

Welch 将这些元素贯穿于整张专辑中，以饱满的情感与恰到好处的“巫”式魅力，时而哀号，时而颤抖，时而高歌，时而尖叫，并得到了 Mitski、Aaron Dessner 和 IDLES 乐队吉他手 Mark Bowen 的鼎力相助。同名曲《Everybody Scream》反思了名声与忍着痛苦表演的心境：“但看着我把自己累垮/血洒舞台/可当你们呼唤我的名字时 我又怎能离开？”（But look at me run myself ragged/Blood on the stage/But how can I leave you when you’re screaming my name?）《Witch Dance》通过急促的节奏和 Welch 喘息般的吟唱施展魔法，营造出一种酒神式的森林狂欢氛围。而《Perfume and Milk》则是 Welch 的自我疗愈之歌：“这首歌关于疗愈，讲的是看着季节更替，看着万物生长、归于尘土，我意识到自己也是自然的一部分，是整个轮回中的一部分。”

随着 Welch 反复吟唱“和平即将到来”（Peace is coming），专辑在充满希望的抒情曲《And Love》中走向尾声。她说：“让这首歌成真吧，让它在这个世界上实现。我总觉得这些歌曲走在我前面，我一生都是如此。”