New Album ‘Angel,’ Early TikTok Fame

Lizzy McAlpine did not exactly have a lot of down time while working on her new album. The 26-year-old songwriter was busy starring in the musical Floyd Collins, fulfilling her lifelong Broadway dream. But she says that experience helped her write the magnificent Angel, her fourth album, out Sept. 18 via RCA. “It definitely contributed to the epiphanies I was having and the things I was writing about,” she says. “It gave me so much confidence, and I really feel like I got my light back. That’s how I felt when I came home. I was like, ‘Wow, I feel like a new person.’”

In the new episode of the Rolling Stone Studio, McAlpine broke down her new album for us. “I think this is definitely my favorite,” she says. “It’s so layered and complex. I felt like [2024’s] Older was the foundation — it was a reset for me of figuring out who I wanted to be as an artist. And this album is building off of that, so I feel like it kind of combines my first three records together, and is more mature and grown up.” Here are some highlights from the discussion.

McAlpine Recently Performed Her New Album All the Way Through

The singer-songwriter played two intimate, phone-free shows in Hackney, London, and Brooklyn, New York, performing the album in its entirety to crowds that were largely unfamiliar with the new songs. “Playing new songs that no one has ever heard, it really gives me an adrenaline rush,” she says. “It makes me really nervous, but it was really fun and the crowd was super welcoming … I don’t really look at their faces. Honestly, if I watch people having a reaction to the songs, I will start to cry. This music means so much to me. This album in particular feels really potent for some reason, so I can’t really focus in on the emotions that they are feeling, because I just will start to feel those emotions as well. I’m really sensitive and very empathetic.”

But She Won’t Ban Phones on Her Next Tour

“I think they’ll be able to have their phones,” she says. “Being able to capture the memory of being there and having videos to look back on, I think that’s a big and special part of going to see a show for a fan. So I want them to have that experience as well. But for these smaller little shows, it was nice to have no phones.”

“The Light in the Painting,” the First Song She Wrote for Angel, Was Inspired by Crosby, Stills & Nash’s “Lady of the Island,” Which Graham Nash Wrote for Joni Mitchell

“I was backstage on tour,” she says. “The first voice memo I have of writing this song, I’m signing things. You can hear me signing posters, and then I’m humming trying to figure out the melody at the same time. And then my tour manager comes in the room and then I stop the voice memo. It was very much on the fly, but that’s kind of how a lot of these songs happen. I just need to get it out … The first time I heard [‘Lady of the Island’] I was like, ‘This is the most magical song.’ It creates such a world, in one song.”

Mitchell’s Hejira Inspired Angel, and McAlpine Actually Got to Meet the Legend

McAlpine was introduced to Mitchell by her longtime collaborator Taylor Mackall during a production rehearsal for her shows at the Hollywood Bowl in October 2024. “I think I honestly blacked out,” McAlpine says. “I mean, it was insane just sitting 10 feet from her, watching her sing. I was full body chills, almost in tears the whole time, pretty much. And then he was like, ‘Do you want to meet her?’ I was like, ‘Yes.’ I honestly don’t even remember what I said. I think I was just like, ‘I love your music so much. I’m so inspired by you.’ It was really crazy.”

The Late Nick Drake Is Credited as a Co-Writer on “A Car Wash and a New Pair of Pants”

The track interpolates Drake’s “One of These Things First,” a track that McAlpine admits she wasn’t familiar with. “I wrote that song and then I played it for my friend and he was like, ‘This sounds so similar to this Nick Drake song,’” she says. “I listened to it and I was like, ‘It’s the same key. The intro chord progression is basically the same. Oh, shoot.’ They feel like sister songs to me. I’d never heard that song when I wrote ‘Car Wash.’ So we reached out to his estate. I was just like, ‘His music inspires me so much, and I would love if we could credit him for this song.’ So now his name is next to mine in the credits, which is just so surreal, and I’m so honored.”

She Now Looks Back Fondly on Her Viral “Ceilings” Moment

In 2023, McAlpine’s “Ceilings” went viral on TikTok, though she never took part in the trend that went with it — featuring a user walking to the sped-up song like a dramatic montage in an indie film. But she finally participated earlier this year. “I never did that trend when it was happening,” she says. “Because I was defiant. I was like, ‘I’m not going to do it.’ But now I feel like I have so much more grace for my [younger] self and my older music. At the time that Older came out, I was feeling really like, ‘That’s not who I am and that’s never who I was.’ I think that was just coming from a place of wanting to be taken seriously. I listen to some of those interviews now and I’m like, ‘Girl, just calm down. Everything’s fine. People will take you seriously. Everything’s OK.”

She Has Big Birthday Plans

McAlpine turns 27 on Sept. 21, and she has a certain idea in mind of how she’s going to celebrate. “I am making all of my friends perform The Little Mermaid,” she says. “I’m giving them all a script, I assigned them characters, and we’re just going to go for it. I’m really excited, honestly.”