Lizzy McAlpine works through grief, love to reach new sound on ‘Angel’
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Anyone who had TikTok downloaded on their phone in 2022 most likely has heard snippets of indie singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine’s song “ceilings” paired with videos of users running with a scenic background and lip-syncing the lyrics.
But McAlpine should be known for more than just her most popular songs. She’s built a career on “sad girl music,” but her new album, “Angel,” creates room for new emotions. Feelings of both joy and pain are communicated in the new release through McAlpine’s gentle voice and her band’s contributing instrumentals working together.
“Angel” is definitely a departure from McAlpine’s “five seconds flat” days when audience members left the venue right after McAlpine played her TikTok hit. With 14 tracks and a one-hour runtime, “Angel” is McAlpine’s most sonically interesting album, featuring longer songs that feel and sound different from her past albums. In the years since “five seconds flat,” McAlpine has released three studio albums — “Older” and “Older (and Wiser)” in 2024 and “Angel,” on Sept. 18.
Despite owing much of her success to “ceilings” off of her album “five seconds flat”, McAlpine has expressed frustration with the song being her most recognizable work, aiming to move away from the viral track, she said in an interview.
Since the release of “ceilings,” McAlpine’s popularity has continued to soar, thanks to her collaborations with Noah Kahan in “Stick Season: We’ll All Be Here Forever” and her cover of “House of the Rising Sun” in the supernatural drama “School Spirits.”
“Angel” is sonically similar to “Older” — both feature slow ballads that McAlpine and her band perform live. However, “Angel” is more hopeful and again features a collaboration with another artist, something McAlpine hasn’t done since she released “reckless driving feat. Ben Kessler” in 2022.
The seventh track on “Angel,” “Soldier of the road (feat. Fleet Foxes)” is a standout for its stripped-back vocals and layered harmonies from Fleet Foxes. While “reckless driving feat. Ben Kessler” is staged as a duet, “Soldier of the road (feat Fleet Foxes)” frames Fleet Foxes as if they’re fellow travelers alongside McAlpine.
“Soldier of the road, you are just like me / Looking for a little love, looking for a little relief,” McAlpine and Fleet Foxes sing in the outro.
Their voices blend seamlessly to create a somber, almost eerie atmosphere.
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The rest of McAlpine’s songs on the album are solo tracks. The other “Angel” tracks, like “The moon” and “I have a friend” focus on love, grief and a return to self. “I have a friend” focuses on the joy of being in love with your best friend, while “The moon” is a reflection on losing autonomy in a romantic relationship.
While many of McAlpine’s songs center on romantic love, her devastating thirteenth track, “The crowd,” is about wanting a loved one to hear her and recognize how far she’s come. McAlpine’s voice floats over a soft piano, singing just loud enough for her father to “hear the crowd.” No other instruments interrupt her sad realization.
It’s tradition for McAlpine to dedicate the thirteenth song on each of her albums to her father, Mark McAlpine, who died in 2020. So, in the chorus of “The crowd,” McAlpine sings about wanting to make her father proud.
“Everything I do / I do so I can make you proud / Everything I do / I make it big so you can hear the crowd,” she sings.
While “the crowd” is a tear-jerker, the album’s lead single “light in the painting” is lighthearted. The transition from the somber songs on “Older” to the lead single is almost shocking — McAlpine wrote a love song that is fully happy. There are no sad undertones and no warning of a breakup. In the music video, McAlpine admires her lover as she sits in the passenger seat of a truck and throws her arms around him before he spins her in a field.
“If somewhere there is a heaven / This is as close as I will get,” McAlpine sings softly in “The light in the painting.”
Another standout on the album is the eighth track “Peach,” which returns to McAlpine’s visceral storytelling seen in “ceilings” when she sings about finding balance and autonomy in a romantic relationship.
“Everything was smaller / Now I’m seeing it grow / And I’m cutting a peach in my kitchen / While you’re playing a show,” McAlpine sings in “Peach.”
Listeners know exactly what’s happening. McAlpine’s visceral storytelling makes it easy to visualize her hand holding a peach steady while a faceless man sings on a stage in front of a cheering crowd.
Songs like “Peach” may not be accurate to every listener’s exact experience, but McAlpine’s soulful voice carries sadness that is so palpable that fans feel as if they are also alone in the kitchen.
“Angel” ends with the song of the same name, “Angel.” It’s similar to “The light in the painting” because it’s slow without being sad. McAlpine again sings about feeling completely at ease with a partner and finding peace in their presence. The album’s lead single and final track sandwich songs about grief, love and figuring out her identity.
McAlpine has found a sound that is truly her own and fans who look forward to her myriad thoughtful, sad and occasionally joyful songs. With “Angel,” McAlpine delivers an album that feels like a gift to longtime fans and introduces more hopeful songs to her discography.
