Lizzy McAlpine, a 25-year-old folk and indie pop artist, emerged into the music scene swiftly in 2020 with her debut album “Give Me A Minute.” Since this debut, each song she’s written has carried a level of harmonization, melancholia and astounding lyrics. In 2021, she released an EP titled “When The World Stopped Moving,” and in 2022, she released “five seconds flat.” About a year after she released “five seconds flat,” she garnered a surmount of media attention for her beautifully heartbreaking song, “ceilings.” Until recently when she posted on her Instagram story saying how she would give herself more grace, she has publicly announced her disdain for this album. Either way, McAlpine is so much more than “ceilings” and “doomsday,” her other hit songs on this album.
In my opinion, her most moving songs are track 13 on each of her albums. On March 13, 2020, her father passed away and McAlpine said that randomly on her first album, the song about her dad ended up being track 13. After this, she decided to dedicate the 13th track on each album to her dad, her grief and her healing.
If being an incredible songwriter isn’t enough, McAlpine is also a film-maker, conceptual photographer and leads a transparent life on media platforms — such as YouTube — by uploading video diaries and vlogs of her tours. After “five seconds flat” was released, she directed a short film revolving around the story told within the album, smoothly incorporating her music into the script.
“Older (and Wiser)” is a personal and artistic milestone for McAlpine. She reached honesty in its most raw and vulnerable form while producing, with her team and band, a musically moving and interesting album. It explores different musical territories for her — namely steel-stringed guitars and intense synth — creating an old-fashioned genre combined with 21st century folk and indie pop. She strays away from focusing on her choruses and bridges like “five seconds flat” and instead tells a larger, deeper story about the trials of getting older (as the album title suggests).
Diving into the bonus tracks she released in “Older (and Wiser)” needs an introduction to the rest of the album. In either strong, dropping songs or vocally centered lyrical ballads, she talks about walking away from people and things that don’t serve her anymore. The listener follows her through self discovery and her personal learnings while offering a space to reflect and apply it to oneself. Growing older is loving and losing — yourself or others — and reaching the understanding that it’s up to individual acceptance to keep pushing forward. Flipping to the B-Side of her recently released bonus tracks, she delved further into these themes.
“Method Acting (Demo)”: As “demo” suggests, this stripped down acoustic song reminisces on a relationship with someone who stays even when the other person hurts them. Full of religious and gorey imagery, she sings as if she’s pleading to be forgiven yet, at the same time, not wanting to be. She sings, “I don’t know why but you’ll forgive me / and I’ll take that to my grave.”
“Pushing It Down And Praying”: This track was released before the rest of bonus tracks and announced the coming of her bonus album. Many fans were taken aback by her mature lyrics talking about sex and the performance that comes with it, like mentioned before. However, it also stirred long-awaited conversations about the role women play in the bedroom being more theatrical rather than pleasurable. She sings, “I wanna know peace again / Wanna sing a different song / I want you to need me / I need to want something more / He gives what he can / But now I don’t know what he’s giving for.”
“Soccer Practice”: Arguably my favorite bonus track, “Soccer Practice” is a song full of “what-ifs” and hopeless yearning for a life and love that leads her to pick up her kids from soccer practice. She knows it has not, and will not, end up this way with the person she envisioned, but longs for the peace of this ending — a different way of growing older. She sings, “We could’ve had it, but then again / We never could’ve done it, I was weaker then / I hate to say it, I know it’s true / I’m waiting for someone who will make me say no to you.”
“Force of Nature”: Another song about the way missing someone becomes automatic after splitting up, she delves into the questions that slip leaves as to who the person will become without her in their lives. This acoustic and vocally focused song has an ominous tone when repeating the lyrics “none of it matters” until the outro when she sings, “What is this if not the ending? / See me off with grace, and let it go / Who are you now that you’re all alone?”
“Spring into Summer”: The most upbeat bonus track quickly became an anthem for many as spring into summer portrays a friendship — singularly or found within a relationship — that she finds herself going back to again and again. Like the title suggests, listening to it feels like you’re on the cusp of a summer full of memories or sitting in the shade at a beach watching others play in the waves. She sings, “Bridge over water, I am jumpin’ off / Taking a picture of all the people close to us / Head below the surface, almost never certain of the truth / I’m always, forever, runnin’ back to you.”
