Sarah Bebb | Issue 12, Fall 2026

CONTENT NOTE: This piece focuses on Lily Allen’s 2018 album No Shame, which the author considers a spiritual predecessor to her latest work, West End Girl (2025). The author discusses the complexity of Allen’s relationships, with Allen having cheated and been cheated on by past partners, and how love is inevitably messy yet often inspiring.

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You’ve got to love a work of art that opens with confessing “Yeah, I’m a bad mother / I’m a bad wife.” Lily Allen’s skeletons are not hidden in her closet. They’re on her lawn, 12 feet tall like the ones from Home Depot. Before Charli’s dancey “Apple” song was Allen’s mournful “Apples” on the same themes of inherited trauma. Before Lena Dunham’s tell-all Famesick was Allen’s 2018 gossipy and heartwrenching memoir My Thoughts Exactly. For long suffering famous female artists, time is a flat circle.

We love a prequel that shows us exactly how our heroes and antiheroes came to be. Wicked (2024), Sunrise on the Reaping (2026), Andor (2022). My favorite prequel, Better Call Saul, is worth a (re)watch for fans who have recently fallen in love with sapphic Rhea Seehorn in Pluribus. Lily Allen’s 2018 album No Shame is West End Girl’s unofficial prequel. And the lore goes deep.

Though there was ubiquitous vitriol online for Allen’s actor ex, few seemed to note that she herself committed serial infidelity with (women!) sex workers on her (first) ex-husband while she was on tour. She processes her addiction and cheating throughout No Shame (2018). While past infidelity does not mean someone deserves to be cheated on in their next relationship (abolish the police also means abolish the morality cop in your head!), it’s fascinating to hear lyrics from Allen that almost seem like they could be written by David Harbour amid the turmoil that spawned West End Girl (2025).

From Allen’s song “Family Man” on No Shame:

“I’ve come to the land of the free / I’ve let loose, I’m faithless / I am lost and shameless / But don’t go forgetting me / I don’t like most people / But I’m scared, not evil / Every day has its / challenges / I just never know what day it is / It’s not always easy / Being a family man / Baby, don’t leave me / I’m just doing what I can / To get by”

I have been an official Lily Allen fan since I brought the CD for Alright, Still (2006) to the playground at my elementary school. In my 20 years as her fan, I have never been under the impression that she was perfect. And I loved her for it. Love is messy. And if you’re lucky, makes great art.