In an era where “situationships” seem to be a shared experience, Lizzy McAlpine’s newly released deluxe album, Older (and Wiser), is sure to tug at the heartstrings.
Released on Oct. 4, Older (and Wiser) continues McAlpine’s 2024 album, Older, a 14-track album detailing her on-and-off relationship. The deluxe album adds five new songs and resumes the themes of love, anguish, heartbreak, guilt, and healing.
It opens with “Method Acting (Demo),” a slower acoustic song where McAlpine details the guilt she feels for making mistakes in her relationship. She writes about the continuous forgiveness her partner provides for her faults, but she ultimately knows that it will likely be the demise of their relationship.
Without giving a moment of recovery, McAlpine continues the disk with “Pushing It Down and Praying,” the lead single of Older (and Wiser). Whether you are imagining this song from the perspective of someone trying to move on from a past relationship, or of being stuck in a relationship and fantasizing about a better partner, this song is sure to hit where it hurts.
McAlpine is known for her perspective switches in her lyricism with her song “Ceilings” released in 2022. She continues this artistic choice in “Pushing It Down and Praying,” writing “he’s inside of me,” in verse one and then switching to “you’re inside of me,” in the second verse. This lyrical choice emphasizes her back-and-forth mental dialog between the two partners who she struggles to grapple her emotions with.
Disk 2 continues with “Soccer Practice,” where McAlpine searches for the “American dream” relationship. Despite her aspirations to find this idealistic dynamic, she is ultimately settling with the idea that it’s a struggle to find yourself in a committed relationship, let alone a nuclear family setup.
“Force of Nature” is the second to last song on the album. Fans long awaited the release of this song, as it was first performed on her previous album tour as an unreleased song, according to the Daily Trojan. It’s a heartbreaking breakup song that explores the thought process after losing a person you love.
McAlpine ends the album with “Spring into Summer.” The song has an upbeat tune with tormenting lyricism where she confesses that she will always go back to her past relationship as she is still in love with what they had.
Older in itself is an incredible work. However, the added tracks in Older (and Wiser) only continued the excellence in lyricism and composition.
This album is undoubtedly worth a listen!
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