I saw the word “vasectomy” and was like, ‘This is going to be insane,’” remembers 33-year-old songwriter Chloe Angelides, co-writer of multiple songs on Lily Allen’s excoriating divorce album West End Girl. The British pop singer had brought her diary entries to the studio for inspiration and was continuing to jot notes down. “[Producer] Blue May started playing the most heartbreaking guitar chords and I was taking words she was writing down and making them rhyme.” The result was the painfully vulnerable ballad “Just Enough”, written by Allen and her team in an hour. “I don’t know anyone else in [pop music] opening up about feeling old and hoping that a facelift holds and talking about vasectomies,” says Angelides of Allen.
For music fans and the general public, the creation of Allen’s West End Girl has been a source of both mystery and envy. There’s a tabloidy undercurrent to it all, of course: it’s a messy album about two very public figures, inviting listeners to speculate about what’s true and what’s an exercise in artistic licence. The record was apparently made in just 10 days. Photos, videos and captions the team have shared make the process look both fun and intense; Allen writing down song titles from a cave-like apartment with light and palm trees outside; everyone dressed chicly in leather and black, lounging in front of recording equipment during the day, dancing or drinking wine while perched on mid-century furniture at night.
