Older – Lizzy McAlpine
★★★★★
With her third album, Lizzy McAlpine delivers a heart wrenching collection of songs showing that she’s not only ‘older’, but wiser beyond her years.
Lizzy McAlpine has been one of our most exciting songwriters for a while, and delivered one hell of a sophomore effort with 2022’s five seconds flat. Delightfully her major label debut doesn’t exploit that albums’ pop sensibilities or lean into the slick production tricks that make that album feel so smooth. If anything, Older is smooth in a different way – it feels like a warm, sobering but comforting hug. It feels lived in, probably due to the heavy use of live instrumentation as the foundation for all of the songs. The creaks of the piano keys bouncing back, the one track vocals and more all come together to paint a portrait of a McAlpine that is older, yes, but also wiser artistically. It’s amazing how the quality of her vocal performance can change without a doubled lead to smooth it out.
But the sounds on this record are not all too unfamiliar for Lizzy, calling back to her earlier projects including my personal favourite, When the World Stopped Moving, which similarly was a live EP. While five seconds flat felt massive in its production choices (thinking about the rumbling climax of ‘reckless driving’ for example), it seems Lizzy has once again decided to go more insular. The songs, regardless of subject matter, are approached with the upmost tenderness. ‘Like It Tends To Do’ is haunting lullaby of sorts, its melody akin to that of a musical theatre swan song. ‘Staying’, similarly is a bit devastating: ‘how can you look so peaceful / When you know I’m gonna leave?’ Even the album’s centerpiece, ‘Drunk, Running’, tackles the difficult situation of loving someone who struggles with addiction only to end with Lizzy herself wondering if she’s ‘addicted’ to this toxic situation.
The album’s more upbeat moments are not any kinder lyrically, but they provide some nice shifts in pacing. ‘All Falls Down’ is one of my favourites, it’s theatrical chord progressions almost taunting Lizzy as she chronicles a breakdown of sorts. ‘22 was a panic attack / I can’t stop the time for moving / and I never get it back’ is a mood, honestly. It’s this matter of fact songwriting, crafted with such clever care, that makes her work so endearing. Her use of perceptive, occasionally shifting from first to second person in the same song, helps the listener resonate with the material in much more personal ways.
This album is quite simply stunning. Unexpectedly, it’s my favourite album of the year so far, and I’ll be surprised if anyone can come as close to this display of vulnerability and musicality as Lizzy. But, the year’s still young…
