Lily Allen says West End Girl album was inspired by The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free

29 October 2025, 16:47 | Updated: 30 October 2025, 11:13

The LDN singer has spoken about her autobiographical new album, which charts the breakdown of her marriage with Stranger Things actor David Harbour.

Lily Allen has revealed she's been inspired by The Streets' A Grand Don't Come For Free on her new album.

The 40-year-old singer-songwriter released West End Girl - her first record in seven years on 24th October 2025, and it's set chins wagging ever since.

The new release - which covers the breakdown of Allen's marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour in painful detail - consists of 14 songs, which were written and recorded in just 10 days.

Speaking about the process of making the record with her exec producer Blue, she told Interview magazine there was lots of "vaping, "lots of crying," and "lots of storytelling".

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Speaking of The Streets' iconic 2004 album, which has a linear and chronological nature, added: "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.

"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 also then revealed she came up with the titles to each of her album tracks before anything else and then spent hours 'crying her heart out' and bringing it together.

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[...] 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'."

Listen to Lily Allen's West End Girl here:

Remind yourself of The Streets' iconic album below:

Lily Allen has been pretty open about her sex life in the past, previously detailing in her memoir that she joined the Mile High Club with Liam Gallagher.

Detailing the "seven hour fling" with the Oasis frontman on The Big Narstie Show, she recalled: "You know, we met in the lounge before we got on the plane and you know, got quite drunk and then... yeah."

Asked who approached who first, the Apple singer joked: "It was a Champagne Supernova in the sky!"

Lily Allen on Joining Mile High Club With Liam Gallagher

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