Lily Allen’s new album has stunned fans – with intricate details of the dissolution of her marriage to philandering ex-husband David Harbour leaving jaws dropping.
West End Girl is an ode to her marriage to the Stranger Things actor, to whom she was married for four years after meeting on dating app Raya, with 14 tracks detailing in brutal honesty the breakdown of their relationship.
The record is her first in seven years and was recorded in just 10 days, in the wake of her devastating split from the Stranger Things actor, 50, in December after Lily, 40, discovered his three-year affair and slew of infidelities.
The widely-lauded album has been carefully dissected by avid fans however many have taken to Google to attempt to establish the meaning behind some of the words – including a dojo, Billy Cotton, 4chan and a Madonna-whore.
The song Pussy Palace’s repeated use of the word dojo has seen a spike in searches for the definition, among other references leaving fans confused.
DOJO
On the song Pussy Palace, Lily sings about visiting her husband’s West Village apartment, where she discovers a slew of racy goods.
The stung star sings: ‘I didn’t know it was a pussy palace, pussy palace, pussy palace, pussy palace // I always thought it was a dojo, dojo, dojo // So am I looking at a sex addict, sex addict, sex addict, sex addict?’
While there is no subtlety to the moniker she gives the apartment, a surge in Google searches came for the definition of a ‘Dojo’.
The definition of a Dojo is: ‘A dōjō is a hall or place for immersive learning, experiential learning, or meditation. This is traditionally in the field of martial arts. The term literally means “place of the Way” in Japanese.’
Lily’s heartbreaking confessional tells listeners she believed his apartment was a peaceful getaway as opposed to the place he was bringing conquests.
MADONNA-WHORE
In the song Sleepwalking, Lily addresses the lack of sex the couple were having – something she detailed on a number of occasions.
The star sings: ‘I know you’ve made me your Madonna I wanna be your whore Baby, it would be my honour Please, sir, can I have some morе? // I could preserve all of your fantasiеs If only you could act them all out with me’.
A Madonna–whore complex is a theory by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud in the early 1900s. The psychological phenomenon was first observed in psychoanalysis, and later applied to feminist critique of broader society.
In psychoanalysis, the complex is defined as an inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed and loving relationship.
The complex is explained on Modern Intimacy as: ‘The Madonna Whore Complex (MWC) is a psychological complex often perpetuated by heterosexual, cisgender males which places women into two categories…
‘The “Madonna,“ defined as a woman who is pure, virtuous, and nurturing, or a “Whore,” a woman who is deemed as overly sexual, manipulating, and promiscuous…
‘The dichotomy of MWC creates a rigidity that limits women’s sexual expression, agency, and freedom by defining their sexuality into one of two categories.’
4CHAN STAN
The eighth track on the album is called 4chan Stan, in a nod to the website 4chan, which gained notoriety since its 2011 launch for dark materials.
Wikipedia states: ‘The site has been described as a hub of Internet subculture, its community being influential in the formation and popularization of prominent Internet memes, such as lolcats, Rickrolling, rage comics, wojaks, Pepe the Frog, as well as hacktivist and political movements, such as Anonymous and the alt-right.’
In April this year, The New Yorker published a scathing piece about 4chan’s unsavoury content, writing: ‘Illicit material was never hard to find on the internet, but 4chan served as an early hub – or “dumping ground” might be more apt…
‘The site was inundated with pornography, pirated files, and uncensored screeds about dating or politics. Its background, a pale yellow gradient, still gives me a slight frisson, like a Playboy issue hidden under the bed’.
Stan meanwhile is internet slang for a huge fan of a subject, inspired by Eminem’s 2000 hit Stan, about an obsessive stalker.
DUANE READE, BERGDORF’S AND TROJANS
While American listeners are all too aware of the brand names Duane Reade, Trojans and Bergdorf’s, UK fans took to Google to work out what Lily meant.
On Pussy Palace she sings: ‘Duane Reade bag with the handles tied // Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside // Hundreds of Trojans, you’re so f**king broken // How’d I get caught up in your double life?’
Duane Reade is a a New York City-based chain of pharmacies and convenience shops, that is a subsidiary of US shopping giant Walgreens.
Trojan meanwhile is the leading condom brand in America.
On 4chan Stan, Lily details how she finds a receipt from Bergdorf Goodman – a high-end department store in America.
She sings: ‘I went through your bedside drawer // You know I’ve never been inclined to have to do that before // Never been in Bergdorf’s…
‘But you took someone shopping there in May, ’24 .. You bought her a handbag, it wasn’t cheap // I was in London, probably asleep // Did you go to Montauk for the weekend? // And was there an encore? Did it pay dividends?’
BILLY COTTON
In the titular track West End Girl, Lily sings about her move to America with David and how life got underway when they bought their home.
She sings: ‘And now we’re all here, we’ve moved to New York // We’ve found a nice little rental near a sweet little school…
‘Now I’m looking at houses with four or five floors // So we went ahead and we bought it // Found ourselves a good mortgage // Billy Cotton got sorted // All the furniture ordered // Made me feel a bit awkward’.
Again, what may be clear to US listeners was lost on those in the UK, as Billy Cotton is not a household name in Britain leading to head scratching.
Billy Cotton is an esteemed interior designer who helped furnish the couple’s kooky NYC home, which featured in Architectural Digest in 2023.
The feature read: ‘It’s a mad, mad, mad, mad world at the Brooklyn town house of Lily Allen and David Harbour. Dressed in an intrepid pasticcio of chintz balloon shades, crystal chandeliers, pink silk, tiger-patterned textiles, and Mylar wallpaper…
‘The home issues a full-throated rebuke to the current vogue for hushed good taste wrapped in a straitjacket of beige…
‘With an able assist from AD100 designer Billy Cotton and architect Ben Bischoff, Allen and Harbour have conjured a familial fantasyland of daring beauty and individual connoisseurial vision. In short, it’s a knockout.’
The former couple have reportedly put the townhouse on the market for $8million. It’s been reported that Lily and David are set to make a huge profit on their Brooklyn property, which they originally purchased for $3.3million (£2.5m) in 2020.
