Lizzy McAlpine ushers in her new era with “Older,” the stripped back, gorgeous title track off her new album (set to release April 5). “Older” is bare, with only beautiful piano and McAlpine’s one-of-a-kind voice. It’s a fresh slate and a new beginning, opening the door wide for what’s coming next.
Stream: “Older” – Lizzy McAlpine
There is a melancholy that sets in when getting older.
The hope of childhood begins to fade as the acceptance of reality settles. When you’re young you fixate on the idea that when you reach a certain age you’ll have everything figured out. The irony is that usually when you reach that age things are only all the more confusing. We start to see life in a new light, away from the rose colored glasses of childhood. While we find new hope to cling onto, this shift is a sad moment – one that is impossible to brush over.
Lizzy McAlpine sits in this moment with her achingly beautiful new single “Older,” the title track off her newly announced third album, out on April 5 via RCA Records.
McAlpine says of the new era, “The music that I’ve released up to this point in my career has been heavily produced and perfected, to the point where I don’t even recognize myself in it anymore. This album is the complete opposite. We recorded most of it live, tracking the entire band at the same time in one room, me included. The passion in that space translates into the recorded music so much more than anything I’ve done before, and it has created a record that, in my opinion, is the best I’ve ever made.”
If “Older” is any indication of what’s to come, we know that we’ll agree.
The song starts with soft and beautiful piano chords, exchanging from major and minor notes making us feel right away before McAlpine’s crystal clear vocals cut in,
Over and over
the carousel ride
pay for your ticket
Watch the red moon climb
Sick to my stomach
Can’t find the ground
Stuck in the loop
Watch the curtain come down
We’ve said it before: Lizzy McAlpine has one of the most effortlessly beautiful voices we’ve ever heard.
With the range of a seasoned theater performer, the control of a recording artist and the ability to emote lyrics, her voice is one that is unmatched. With the new era being one that is stripped back, we can only hope her vocals continue to be amplified as they are in “Older”. She continues on to sing the chorus in a way that only she could sing it:
Thought it’d be over by now
Thought you would leave
Thought I would come to my senses
Wish I was stronger somehow
Wish it was easy
Somewhere I lost all my senses
I wish I knew what the end is
The lyrics of the second verse touch on one of the sadder things in life. Realizing as you get older, the people you love are getting older. Realizing that one day you may no longer have them. It’s these moments that feel so low, but that also give us a new appreciation and urge us to appreciate what we have now.
Over and over
Watch it all pass
Mom’s getting older
I’m wanting it back
Where no one is dying
No one is hurt
I have been good to you
Instead of making it worse
McAlpine emotes the final chorus in a way that should bring a tear to anyone who is truly listening.
“Older” doesn’t tie anything up with a neat bow, it doesn’t have a big moment it builds to, it simply is. Some of the greatest songs of all time exist in the same way “Older” does by McAlpine. It feels like a perfect introduction for what is to come. It strips everything back to the beginning, opening the door wide for possibility.
Older, a deeply personal fourteen-track album written during a three-year period of transition into adulthood, is out April 5.
“To me, this album represents who I’ve become over the past three years,” McAlpine shares. “Through the long and mostly tumultuous journey of making it, I have learned who I am as a person, who I want to be as an artist and what kind of art I want to make. This album is a culmination of that growth, showcasing the rawest and most honest version of me.”
Listen to “Older,” out now, and stay tuned for more to come from Lizzy McAlpine’s third album.
Thought it’d be over by now
Thought you would leave
Thought I would come to my senses
Wish I was stronger somehow
Wish it was easy
Somewhere I lost all my senses
I wish I knew what the end is
— —
:: stream/purchase Older here ::
:: connect with Lizzy McAlpine here ::
Stream: “Older” – Lizzy McAlpine
— — — —
Connect to Lizzy McAlpine on
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© baeth
© baeth:: Stream Lizzy McAlpine ::
