I think vinyl is cool, but Lily Allen just made a new breakthrough in physical media: released her album West End Girl as an anal plug.
UPDATE (Dec. 3, 1:58 p.m. ET): Allen is now selling West End Girl on a USB flash drive shaped like a butt plug, which will be available in limited quantities from her online store, just in time for the holiday season. As of this writing, the demand for the product is so high and the supply so limited that you will have to wait in line before you have the opportunity to purchase it.
Once you enter you can make a pre-order West End Girl shaped like a USB anal plug for 32 US dollars. The release date is set for December 12th, with UK orders placed before December 17th expected to arrive in time for Christmas. “Note. This product is a new USB device intended for data storage purposes only,” reads a warning in the product description.
West End Girl has caused a stir on the internet since its release last week thanks to its explicit lyrics, which apparently describe her split from actor David Harbour. Standard notes that last Friday (October 24) Ideal magazine hosted a dinner for Allen and her friends in London. There, the participants were given a blue butt plug with polka dots – and TMZ reports that recipients discovered that the butt plug was a USB drive containing an album.
The sex toy is a reference to lyrics from the song “Pussy Palace”, where Allen details her husband's alleged infidelity with the lines: “Sex toys, butt plugs, lube inside / Hundreds of Trojans, you're fucking broken.” Now, release party goers can literally shove the song up their ass.
Releasing albums as digital accompaniments to physical items has almost become a trend in the last decade. A group from Toronto called Neon Windbreaker released their EP Sandwich + Fruit through food, while Montreal, released in 2008 Skeletal lighting as a complement to wall decals and other products.
