Lizzy McAlpine - Older (and Wiser)

Lizzy McAlpine went viral, watched the machine try to turn her into a content generator, and responded by making the least algorithmic record of her career. Older arrived on RCA in 2024 recorded largely live to tape with a band in the room, all breath and creaking chairs and songs that end when they are finished rather than when a chorus is due. It is a quiet album that took real nerve to release.

"The Elevator" opens with almost nothing and dares you to lean in. "Come Down Soon" and "All Falls Down" work the folk-rock middle ground she has made her own, "I Guess" is the closest thing to a single and still refuses a hook you could sell, and the title track is a plain-spoken accounting of getting older that never reaches for a metaphor it does not need. Her phrasing is the instrument here, and she has become extraordinarily good at it.

This is what happens when an artist decides being understood matters more than being streamed.

This deluxe double LP is the first vinyl pressing of the bonus material, adding "Method Acting (Demo)," "Spring Into Summer," "Pushing It Down and Praying," "Soccer Practice" and "Force Of Nature," plus live versions of four of them recorded on the Older tour, two of which appear only on this vinyl edition. Standard weight black discs in a gatefold jacket with printed sleeves.