Lily Allen is set to make a return to music with a new record that marks her first in seven years.
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News of the new album follows last month’s announcement that she’d be taking a hiatus from the Miss Me? podcast to “go and do some new stuff for a little bit”, which many took as a sign she was turning her sights to new music and potentially working on the follow-up to 2018’s ‘No Shame‘.
Now, in a new interview with British Vogue, Allen has confirmed that the yet-to-be-titled album was recorded in a mere “16 days” late last year, and appears to draw from the dissolution of her marriage to Stranger Things actor David Harbour after reports of alleged infidelity on his part.
Having heard the record, writer Olivia Marks described it as “Lily at the very peak of her powers,” with “gut-punch lyrics” set to infectious pop. The snippets of lyrics shared in the interview certainly seem to allude to the “emotional turmoil” triggered by their split that she’s discussed previously.
On ‘Sleepwalking’, for instance, she sings: “You let me think it was me in my head / And nothing to do with them girls in your bed”. Similarly, in ‘Dallas Major’ she doubles down: “You know I used to be quite famous that was way back in the day / I probably should explain how my marriage has been open since my husband went astray”.
“There are things that are on the record that I experienced within my marriage, but that’s not to say that it’s all gospel,” she told Vogue. “It is inspired by what went on in the relationship: Confusion, sorrow, grief, helplessness.”
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This comes as the start of the year saw her share that she was “trying to manifest” getting a new album “out by the end of the year”. Last spring, she revealed that she was working on new music in Nashville, but found the process a bit “intimidating”.
In January of last year, the ‘Not Fair’ singer teased that she had written around 50 new songs for her upcoming album, although none have been shared at the time of writing.
Rumours of new music stem back to 2020, when Allen said that she had finished working on a new album and was writing for three musicals; though that supposed album has never been released.
Two years later, she said that she had returned to the studio following her special guest performance at Olivia Rodrigo’s Glastonbury set in 2022. After the collaboration, Allen credited the performance with Rodrigo for “sparking something” in her that rekindled her yearning to write and record new music.
More recently, the singer said that she has noticed her music having a “resurgence” online, with more young people becoming fans in recent years.
Outside of music, Allen has also made a name for herself in acting – both on stage and on screen. She made her theatre debut in the 2021 play 2:22 A Ghost Story, followed by 2023’s The Pillowman. On-screen, she has appeared as Elizabeth Taylor in the 2019 film How To Build A Girl and as Mel in the 2023 comedy series Dreamland.
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