Older (And Wiser)＜完全生産限定盤＞

新星シンガーソングライター= Lizzy McAlpine(リジー・マカルパイン)
デビュー・アルバムに未発表音源等を追加収録した『Older (and Wiser)』(アナログ盤)

1999年フィラデルフィア近郊生まれのシンガーソングライター=Lizzy McAlpine(リジー・マカルパイン)。YouTubeやSNS等を駆使し、知名度を上げ、RCAレコードと契約し、2024年メジャーデビュー・アルバムとなる『Older』をリリースした。今作はそのデビューアルバムのデラックス盤『Older (and Wiser)』(アナログ盤)。「Method Acting (Demo)」「Spring Into Summer」「Pushing It Down and Praying」「Soccer Practice」「Force of Nature」の初ヴァイナル化に加え、『Older』ツアー中に録音されたライヴバージョンも4曲収録。その中の「Soccer Practice (Live from Eventim Apollo, London)」と「Force of Nature (Live from The Anthem, Washington DC)」は、このアナログ盤のための未発表ライヴ音源となる。

On her third album, 2024s Older, singer/songwriter Lizzy McAlpine catches you off guard, crafting songs that are as lyrical and delicately rendered as they are affecting. If you havent listened to McAlpine, you might be surprised by the emotional weight and nuanced musical sophistication at play in her work. While sharing the same creative musical space as Taylor Swift and Maggie Rogers, McAlpine has quietly carved out her own place in the contemporary pop landscape, crafting intimate, folky songs that sound like well-honed diary entries. Its a deeply enveloping vibe that made both her 2020 debut and her 2022 follow-up such unexpected delights, and she digs further into that vibe on Older. She also digs deeper musically, working closely with her collaborators, who include Mason Stoops, Ryan Lerman, Jeremy Most, and Tony Berg crafting beautifully attenuated piano and acoustic guitar arrangements. She also weaves in other unexpected instrumental sounds, framing her hushed, yet resonant vocals in dreamy pedal steel guitar on "The Elevator," woody reeds on "All Falls Down," and orchestral strings on "Broken Glass. " Though the term "break-up album" feels reductive when describing the nuanced emotions at play on Older, theres definitely a sense that McAlpine is working through some heartbreak. She walks the listener through her memories, setting you up to laugh with a cute romantic moment that hides a deeper wound. Its a poignantly dichotomous vibe she conjures throughout Older, as on "I Guess," where she returns to a warm moment out somewhere with her lover, singing, "Ill tell a lie just to bring you home/We dance together/Youre not that good." Later, after theyve gone home, she reveals, "Now I am sick, and Youre probably drunk/Youre saying things and they sound like love." Its that sound of love, the fantasy vs. the reality of a relationship, that fascinates McAlpine and makes Older such a lovely and bittersweet experience. ~ Matt Collar

フィニアスやジェイコブ・コリアーらが参加した2作目『Five Second Flat』で新たな表現領域へと漕ぎ出したフィラデルフィア近郊出身のシンガー・ソングライターがメジャー・デビュー。一聴して気づくのは、楽曲本来の骨格が鮮明に浮かび上がるトラックの多さだ。トニー・バークほか複数のプロデューサーが関与しているが、いずれも彼女の体温に即した音作りに専心していて、かすかに憂いが滲む呟き声と浮遊感を湛えたヴォーカル・ハーモニーがより魅惑の響きを獲得する結果に。質素ながら深い趣を感じさせる、あまりに強力な3作目。深く沈むようなピアノの音色に彩られた表題曲の美しさと言ったら。
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