Actually, let’s face it, never break anyone’s heart*. Perhaps, though, if you really have to have another eye for a moment, pay attention to whether your partner writes songs. Because you may have some unintended effects as time goes on. You know the “revenge songs,” right? They are increasingly a popular genre, more alive than ever. From Shakira to Miley Cyrus to Justin Timberlake. Then again, we’ve heard plenty of examples of songs about breakups in love.
And in the long list of artists who have brought their misadventures into songs, partly because anything is art, partly also to retaliate for the injuries they have received, Lily Allen has also been added powerfully in recent months.
With “West End Girl,” the British artist removed not pebbles but boulders from her shoes. Outspoken, strong songs in which she threw out everything she experienced in her complicated relationship with David Harbour. As in “4chan Stan,” where she recounts finding receipts in the drawer next to her bed from Bergdorf Goodman, a well-known large upscale shopping mall from which she did not remember making purchases. Because the purchases, it turns out, were for other women.
Well, those verses of that song and those receipts became a “dress”: a kind of drape, with prints of those receipts, that Allen sported on her live tour, going viral. Creative and alternative ways to redeem oneself after a breakup.
Somewhat like RAYE, who on TikTok showed the latest addition posted on the wall of The Nightingale in London. A plaque/plate of sorts – well known in the UK on British buildings to remind people of the connection between a character and a particular place – that was posted outside her ex-boyfriend’s favorite pub, where “RAYE experienced the greatest heartache of love she has ever known,” in 2019.
Time has passed, but still some resentment remains. Evidently enough for her to “celebrate” this milestone with a beer, in a “drama era” that perhaps so many share.
[📸 Getty Images; Instagram: lilyallen, bizarrap, shakira, raye, mileycyrus; Courtesy of Bastet Media 📹 Instagram: lilyallen; TikTok: raye]
