All couples in love are alike; each shattered couple, however, has been shattered in its own way. When you fall in love with someone, your friends tolerate you talking about them and fawning over them. But when someone fucks you over—when they break your heart—we want the details. We want to know that Taylor Swift left her scarf there at his sister’s house and that Alanis Morissette went down on him in a theater. We want to know every gory little piece of what happened to you. Show us the knife wound. Show us the knife.
Part of creating anything is understanding which parts of you are interesting to others, and Lily Allen knows that in a breakup what people want (be they friends or fans) is details. On Friday, with just a few days’ warning, Allen dropped a 14-song, 44-minute album called West End Girl. It’s an ideal breakup album because it’s petty and unconcerned with fairness. It throws all the dirty laundry right out onto the street.
