By LUCIE BURNS
News Editor
Indie pop and folk singer Lizzy McAlpine released her new album “Older” on April 5, making it her third studio album in four years, and arguably the most dynamic.
The album has a total of 14 tracks totaling to a length of 45 minutes, which is the same length of her previous album “Five Seconds Flat”. However, apart from this similarity, I think the albums differ significantly. The album explores lots of different and mature themes, ranging anywhere from songs about failing relationships to a track about her father’s passing.
The album’s title track, “Older”, was released on Feb. 13. The track only took 20 minutes to finish writing and was done by the third take, according to an Instagram post by McAlpine. The song only has a piano for an instrumental, making it one of the most raw on the album.
The title track explores feelings of nostalgia, constant problems in a relationship, and beginning adulthood, while emphasizing that life seems to be just a repetitive cycle with no end. This is one of my favorites on the album, despite its simplicity. I appreciate when an artists’ songwriting ability and their voice can make up for the lack of a more complicated instrumental, it just proves how talented they are.
Track Seven on the album, titled “I Guess”, was also released as a single before the album. The song begins with an acoustic guitar and McAlpine’s vocals. A lot of her songs begin this way, with just her voice and a piano or guitar at first. She often builds the instrumentals in layers this way. The quiet layered vocals behind the melody and its soft beat make the track a very easy, catchy listen.
“Come Down Soon” is one of my favorite songs on the album. The song describes a relationship that is going well, but ultimately the singer knows that it won’t last long. I appreciate how she was able to turn such a sad theme into an upbeat, calm track. The layered harmony of vocal instrumentals behind the melody offers a dissonant sound, making it particularly appealing to the ears.
A song that I feel also deserves to be mentioned is “Broken Glass”. This track stands apart to me from the others on the album, with its heavy theme and harsh, loud instrumentals in the bridge. The song is a metaphor for how getting hurt in a relationship can feel like it is physical pain at the same time. McAlpine uses borrowed chords from a different key in bridge to emphasize an angry or tense feeling, making the bridge the unexpected climax of the song.
Consistently throughout the album, an element that really stands out to me is McAlpine’s raw vocals. In some songs, the quiet and acoustic instrumentals really let the listener appreciate her vocals, specifically how clear and smooth her tone is. However, she also has the ability of layering vocals very well without it sounding overwhelming, making her very versatile as an artist. The vocal layering particularly stood out to me in tracks “Drunk, Running”, “Come Down Soon, and “Movie Star”.
McAlpine also explores many elements of music throughout this album, anywhere from dissonant harmonies to using advanced chords. I really like when songwriters can change a chord or two to take the melody of a song in an unexpected direction, making it unique. Her abilities as a songwriter are clearly very complex, not just in terms of lyrics, but in terms of music theory as well.
Overall, this high quality album really goes to show how McAlpine is developing her skills as an artist as she continues to release music. This album certainly has more depth than her previous ones, as she was just starting out in the field. It really delves into different struggles while experimenting with different elements of music. Listening to her past albums felt a bit all over the place to me, but within “Older,” it feels like she has really found her sound as a singer and songwriter, making it her best album yet.
