Lizzy McAlpine’s Angel Takes You to the Heavens
Beginning with a soft and somber pump organ; Lizzy’s voice breaks through the tension something so soft, familiar, and longing that it hits you hard. Listening almost felt like you were remembering something fondly that you had almost forgotten. Discussing falling for someone and their beauty as being compared to the light in a painting you can feel the limerence grow as the song progresses as plucked guitar chords, piano, and layered vocals are added into the track giving the feeling of almost floating and truly feeling like you’re on cloud nine with this person who you are falling so deeply in love with. Coming to an abrupt halt, the following track “Anybody’s fool” brings almost the opposite effect of the previous. With a tender guitar melody McAlpine discusses watching a past lover from afar longing for something that they once had, “I know this is right and I know that it’s sad/Want you to want me again like that/I like the way it feels to not be anybody’s fool/I know this is right but it’s hard to explain/Want you to want me to want to change”. In between the chorus and the verses you can hear a soft recording of two people laughing and talking a beautiful and heartbreaking addition as if looking back on the good times that there once were.
“A car wash and a new pair of pants” begins a more upbeat melody giving a very folk feel throughout the guitar plucking throughout the song. Here is where her vocals really started to shine specifically in the chorus switching from her head voice with a light and floating sound to a powerful chest voice belting the notes with a clear tone that cuts through the music. Paired with a beautiful and heartbreaking realization of a relationship falling apart which explores the feeling of being used in a relationship for status, “I feel so used/Lied to, betrayed/Who was I with?/Where is his soul, his conscience?/Always tried to keep fame as your mistress/I just loved you”. Whereas the next song tenderly explores the exact opposite of the previous entailing having a friend and someone so close to you in your relationship that everything they do is so endearing, “I would sit here my whole life/I would sing to you all day/There is no room/Without your voice to fill it/My mouth is just a straight line/Without your lips to kiss it”. This song can truly only be described as the music truly flowing out of her. The lyrics feel so deep and personal while also being extremely natural almost like McAlpine is free styling this on her guitar in her bedroom. This is also solidified by the way the song slowly builds in a way where you almost don’t notice it however it hits you deep in your chest.
The beautiful orchestration of songs continues with one of the strongest songs from the album “The moon”. Starting with strummed guitar giving a jazz feel the song continues as it adds piano, bass, and percussion and it continues to ebb and flow throughout the track building by adding and subtracting different instruments and vocal layering. It captures being out of control within a relationship devoting yourself to your partner something that McAlpine continues to do within her instrumental orchestrations throughout the record. For example, her song “Ugly things” captures watching someone you loved so deeply move on starting slow and gentle almost like trying to grasp and accept the fact that the inevitable will happen before bringing in percussion and a louder vocal section to show the breakdown after not being able to handle such a feeling.
Lizzy McAlpine for her fourth studio album “Angel” photographed by Keith Oshiro
I remember going to see Lizzy back in December at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever. She had played a small intimate show to say farewell to her album “Older” before moving onto her next project. There she has played two new original songs one of which was “Over country” which upon giving the album a first listen I was so glad made it onto the track list. She had explained the inspiration for the song coming to her when performing in the broadway musical “Floyd Collins” and being far away from the majority of the people she loved but knowing how strong the love she felt for them was and vice versa brought her comfort throughout their time of distance. Another song with a folk influence is a beautiful testament to how beautiful love could be both romantically and platonically, “Someone loves me over country under many moons/From a street I drove, down to a home I knew/I can picture standing at your door waiting for you/I know, I know”.
Lyrically “Mason’s song” was one of the beautiful on the album. A beautiful tribute to her friend and collaborator Mason Stoops truly brought tears to my eyes thinking about all of the people close in life who truly make the days better, “Sit around and talk about the people we were/A year ago, when we were trying to make it all work/We can laugh, and looking back it all sounds absurd/But there is one thing I know/I can’t do this alone/I can’t do it alone”. A deeply personal and meaningful piece paired with a haunting guitar and piano accompaniment brought together particularly at the end with Lizzy’s voice overlapping Mason’s in a conclusion of their mutual understanding and appreciation of each other. Carrying on with another tribute to her father, “The crowd” is a poignant piano ballad that encapsulates grief and trying to continue on despite it. Throughout you can hear the emotion in her voice; one of the most earnest I’ve heard from McAlpine, “I wish I told you more that I loved you/There’s so much I would have said, and so much that I wanted to/But no one could predict how it all went sideways/I try to remember that/Everything I do/I do so I can make you proud/Everything I do/I make it big so you can hear the crowd”.
McAlpine’s voice breaks through in a gentle yet mature tone in her title track “Angel” which could not be a more perfect ending to the journey of the record. She has found a new lover and after healing she realizes the ‘angel’ that she was looking for was found within herself. The song builds in the middle with piano and percussion almost as if the realization of this epiphany comes through. Throughout the album McAlpine proves time and time again that she truly understands the highs and lows that there are to not only growing but simply existing as well. Through her lyrical genius and impactful orchestrations she is a true real life angel.
