Lizzy McAlpine - Angel [Indie Exclusive]

Lizzy McAlpine had a song go enormous on the internet and responded by making records that are harder, not easier, to consume in fragments. Angel continues that, following 2024's Older with fifteen songs that reward sitting with the whole thing.

The arrangements are live and largely unquantised, with the band audible as a room rather than a stack of parts. "The light in the painting" opens it quietly and sets the terms. "A car wash and a new pair of pants" is the kind of title that could be twee and instead delivers the most specific writing on the album. "Soldier of the road" brings in Fleet Foxes and lets their harmonies do what they do without turning it into a feature spot. "Two elevens" and "Our strange ways" are the emotional centre, and the title track closes the record twice, in two different readings.

This is a songwriter deliberately building an audience that listens rather than one that scrolls, and the album is stronger for the stubbornness.

Indie exclusive double LP on opaque cream white vinyl with a poster, for independent shops.