Lily Allen has described her latest album as "an act of desperation".
The Smile singer released her long-awaited fifth album, West End Girl, last month, announcing the surprise project just days before its arrival. She admitted she had not approached the record, which she wrote and recorded in 10 days after her marriage to David Harbour ended, as a "commercial endeavour".
At the time, Lily was not even sure she would release the album for the public to hear.
Speaking to CBS News, she said: “At the time I wasn’t really thinking about it as a commercial endeavour, it was just, it was an act of desperation actually.
“While I was writing it I wasn’t really sure whether it was going to see the light of day up until relatively close to its release. I was always thinking, ‘Is this something I want to share with the world?’ But not when I was writing it because the writing was very much... I hate the word - I don’t hate it but I feel like we hear the words 'catharsis' or 'therapy' in relation to music [quite a lot].
“It’s an odd idea and an odd question that if you consider yourself an artist that you might think, ‘Should I really be sharing what’s going on in my brain as part of my art?’. That’s kind of messed up, that that is where we have got to as human beings.”
The 40-year-old previously stressed that West End Girl was not a "cruel album".
Speaking to Interview magazine, she said: "It’s not a cruel album. I don’t feel like I’m being mean. It was just the feelings I was processing at the time."
Lily has since moved into a different headspace from the one she was in while making the record and said she no longer feels the need for "revenge".
She explained: "I mean, I wrote this record in 10 days in December and I feel very differently about the whole situation now. We all go through breakups and it’s always f****** brutal. But I don’t think it’s that often that you feel inclined to write about it while you’re in it.
"That’s what’s fun about this record; it’s viscerally like going through the motions. At the time, I was really trying to process things and that’s great in terms of the album, but I don’t feel confused or angry now. I don’t need revenge."
