Lizzy McAlpine is an actress and singer-songwriter from Philly. She has been in Floyd Collins on Broadway, School Spirits on Netflix, and has released three studio albums. Recently she released her fourth studio album, Angel. It is composed of fourteen songs. With the album release, she also announced that she will be going on tour in 2027; her Philly show is at Xfinity Mobile Arena!
McAlpine is one of my favorite artists so hearing that she was making new music was huge for me. I preordered the CD as soon as I saw the announcement.
McAlpine released two singles from the album a few months prior to the actual drop date. They are “The light in the painting,” which has 12 million streams on Spotify, and “Ugly Things.” Hearing both songs during the summer got me so excited to hear the rest of the tracks. Then in September, the rest of the album dropped.
And I was ready. The minute it hit midnight, I was listening.
The fan favorite of the album is “Over Country,” and it is not hard to see why. I also love that song. Whenever I hear this one I think of my friends that go to other colleges because of the line “Someone loves me, over country, over hills and dams.”
A few of my friends and I have also mentioned that we relate to this song because of the line “I can try my best to be far from home,” because we are all growing up, moving away from home, and having our own experiences. When my favorite artists announce albums and track lists, I like to predict which song will be my favorite based on the name alone, and usually they do end up being my favorite.
This time around I saw the title “The Moon” and knew. I ended up being right; I adore that song. I think a massive part of why is because I love the moon and see so much beauty in it, Also, the writing is gold.
My other two favorite tracks are “Peach” and “Solider of the road.” As soon as I heard Peach, I was hooked because of the storytelling in the lyrics. My favorite part of the song is when McAlpine sings “I’m cutting a peach in my kitchen, while you’re playing a show.”
“Solider of the road” is a collab with Fleet Foxes. Fleet Foxes wrote “White Winter Hymnal,” which I love, so when I saw that they were working together, I was so excited.
There are a few songs that I find so heartbreakingly beautiful that I cannot listen to day-to-day; they are “The Crowd”and “Two Elevens.” “The Crowd” is about McAlpines’ father, who passed away. This is not the first song she’s written about her dad. She also wrote “chemtrails” from “five seconds flat” about him.
The lyricism in “Two Elevens” does it for me every time, specifically the line “I don’t blame me, I am older,” that line honestly reminds me of the track titled “Older” from her previous album, Older. They could be sister songs, in a somewhat sad way.
Every track on this album has incredible lyricism, and so much effort and time has gone into making four studio albums. She wrote these songs for a reason, to tell a story. McAlpine stands to be one of my favorite artists, and her music has always had a way to narrate my life. I am very excited to see what she does in the future and with her upcoming tour.