Listening to Older (and Wiser) by Lizzy McAlpine may have changed the trajectory of my life. Released on October 4, 2024, this soft-indie album gained traction across numerous platforms with notable songs like “Spring Into Summer” and the single “Pushing It Down and Praying”. The vocals, the instrumentals, and the production were near Grammy worthy from this twenty-six year old musician.

Growing up in Philadelphia, Lizzy has been involved with music and even some theatrical productions from as young as twelve years old. Her debut album Give Me a Minute released August 13, 2020 and her EP When the World Stopped Moving, released April 21, 2021. These both received some critical acclaim, but her career didn’t skycrocket until 2022 when her song “ceilings” from sophomore album five seconds flat went viral on TikTok.

Gaining popularity, her concerts began filling up and before long, she released her new album, Older, on April 5, 2024. Subsequently, the deluxe version of that album, named Older (and Wiser), released that same October.

Well what exactly makes Older (and Wiser) different from Older? Firstly, there are more songs. Older (and Wiser) contains an additional five songs from Lizzy. These five songs consist of “Method Acting (Demo)”, “Pushing It Down and Praying”, “Soccer Practice”, “Force of Nature”, and concluding with “Spring Into Summer.” “Method Acting” stood out the most to me out of all five of these songs, primarily because it’s a demo. Releasing a song that isn’t finished or to your standards as an artist takes a certain level of vulnerability and I love that Lizzy was willing to let her listeners be exposed to that: just her and her guitar in the studio.

Immediately at first listen, this album washed over me with emotion and intensity. The amount of passion Lizzy poured into this album was so apparent and brought real tears to my eyes. Lizzy tends to lean towards the more sad, bedroom-pop style indie songs – but she does it so well. In this day and age where more and more people are trying to become noticed for their music, it’s not even a task for Lizzy because of her sheer talent and dedication.

Knowing the hardships she’s endured added to the sentiment as well. For instance, every thirteenth track on each of her studio albums is dedicated to her late father, Mark McAlpine, who passed in 2020. “March” was this album’s thirteenth track and the personal anecdotes Lizzy included shed light on the realistic process of grief and how it truly impacted her.

It has been established that Lizzy is a talented musician but she didn’t create this album all on her own. With the help of producers and instrumentalists Mason Stoops, Taylor Mackall, and Michael Libramento, they were able to create this album as a team.

Each song on this album has its own distinct sound: a huge achievement, considering many musicians today lack that aspect of originality. Despite being a primarily hushed album, she still included some more upbeat tracks such as “Come Down Soon”. This song was so well formulated and her incorporation of chromatic snippets were executed in a subtle yet effective manner.

It’s obvious that I enjoyed virtually every song on this album but my favorite, by a landslide, would have to be “Vortex”. The calm start, leading to a build of tension, then ultimately to a climax filled with raw emotion; it gives me chills every time.

Although I have mentioned all of the aspects of this album I adore, the only thing I took note of was the lackluster instrumentation. Yes, it’s true that Lizzy is without comparison when it comes to acoustic indie music, but the songs did become a bit repetitive at times. It almost felt like I was just listening to an extension of the same song as I went through tracks. There were some moments I thought oh, some orchestration would sound nice here, or maybe she should have shifted the dynamic contrast in this verse. That being said, there were still very few sections where I was having these thoughts.

At the end of the day, no album is going to be perfect because art is subjective. What I think may sound extraordinary may just sound ordinary to the next individual. Nonetheless, if there ever were an album that would fit the mold of perfection, Older (and Wiser) would be pretty close – an extraordinary album, from an extraordinary artist.