Older (And wiser) is Lizzy McAlpine’s 3rd studio album. This album shows themes of distrust, dishonesty, and knowing you don’t belong in a relationship. Lizzy’s interpretation of love and relationships becomes increasingly skewed as each song progresses. Her story that she explains through each song shows a very interesting perspective of her love life. It also shows how she experiences these challenges and how she goes about them.
Lizzy has always had a way with her words, twisting certain meanings to relate to how she felt. She constantly uses metaphors mixed in with beautiful lyricism to portray a certain image or message for a certain sound. This album almost feels as if it is her realest album yet. The imagery and themes of this album feel very relatable. The songs in this album go in chronological order, so it really does feel like you are listening to a short story book.
The first half of the album explains the never-ending story of love. Lizzy shows the cycle of distrust she has, and how she keeps getting pulled back into the relationship because of flawed excuses. She explains how she feels helpless and how she knows she doesn’t want anything to do with him, but how she stays because she feels she must. The song “Come Down Soon” explains how she knows that the relationship feels good now, but how she also knows that nothing good ever lasts. The album keeps going back and forth between wanting to stay but knowing she can’t.
The second half of the album takes an interesting and drastic turn. We go from distrust and dishonesty to explaining the flaws and issues in their relationship. These issues range from addict issues all the way to being forced to change because of the other person. Lizzy starts to realize that she has free will to leave, and most importantly, that she now wants to. The last song is a beautifully constructed orchestra piece with heavy strings and drums explaining the heavy burden being lifted off her shoulders the moment she leaves.
All in all, this album is a beautiful piece that explains a wonderful story of unrequited love. The sounds she creates using strings and the piano portray a never-ending story of love. I loved this album very much, and it will stay in my playlist for a long time.
