A few days ago, in the quaint New York studio just off Rockefeller Center, Lizzy McAlpine sat on a stool in her grey patchworked sweater while the accompanying lilt of ‘Older’ started in the background. Soon enough, all it took to whisk us into the melancholic wonderings of where exactly the time goes was a few piano keys and Jimmy Fallon’s cheering applause.
‘Older’ is the title track of Lizzy’s third studio album, which is one of the rare occurrences where we can thank time, as it’s only a few short days away! April 5, in fact, is when it’s hitting all streaming platforms. In celebration, we wanted to shift through her older, heh, lyrics to associate them with an age where we perhaps needed to hear its message the most!
Age 12
I wanna eat pancakes for dinner / I wanna get stuck in your head
‘Pancakes for Dinner’
As saccharine as sweet, sticky syrup, this lyric that acts as another way to tell someone that you love them is probably Lizzy’s most known lyric. Those three words are sometimes too big to chew out, especially when you have your first crush. So something as simple as the energetic rush of eating pancakes at dinner time is an excellent way to say that you feel a similar feeling with them. It’s like when one of your parents stays out late, and you have something you’re not supposed to with your other one. It’s innocent and cute, all things your first crush should be.
Age 16
Now we’re going one hundred / Your hands aren’t on the wheel / ‘Cause you’re just staring at me like you’re not convinced that I am real
‘reckless driving’
Chances are, when you were tossed the driving keys to your first vehicle, you acted more like Lizzy, right? You’re always careful when staying just under the speed limit, easily interweaving between the neon orange cones. It’s all thanks to those years of Mario Kart! Yeah, that’s what you’re saying, but when it comes down to the teacher who had to pass you, it was shaky hands and red-marked boxes. To them, you’re the muse in this scenario, driving so recklessly that you’d surely end up plummeting into a tree. Of course, the vehicle is a metaphor for relationship and attachment styles; as with all things Lizzy McAlpine, those normal, ordinary things turn into metaphors.
Age 18
Someday we’ll be grown and I’ll be / Fine with packing up / Cardboard boxes filled and sad farewells / And I’ll be fine with that goodbye / As long as I don’t say goodbye to you as well
‘Apple Pie’
Of course, the major milestone for all 18-year-olds is packing up all those keepsake items into a rolling suitcase and moving into your second home: your dorm room! It’s that first slice of freedom (yes, we’re using an ‘Apple Pie’ pun here; sue us) after living under the guidance of your parents for so long. But what’s gorgeous about this song is that it makes one realize it’s true when one says a home isn’t a place. It’s a person. You truly feel the most daring when you’re willing to fly thousands of miles away from a town dusted in old memories.
Age 21
You’re kinda cute and I would say all of this / But I don’t wanna ruin the moment / Lovely to sit between comfort and chaos
‘ceilings’
Yes! That Lizzy tune made its way around the TikTok sphere before comfortably lying in the splendid acoustic room of the BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge for Niall Horan’s cover. The two then joined forces for an added verse of the moonlit lullaby, which is ‘You Could Start a Cult.’ This particular lyric resides in the second verse. Saying that first “I love you” can quite literally feel like a bomb is about to go off. It’s those counted-down minutes as the sparks of nervous electricity keep building. And what’s different from saying it from when you’re 12 to now saying it when you’re 21 (yeah, okay, we understand that those numbers are in reverse) is that you know the weight of it. Hence, it is wedged between “comfort and chaos.”
Age 23
I’d have liked to plan out my part in this / But you’re such a narcissist / That you did it on Halloween
‘doomsday’
Sour gummy worms crawling out of carved pumpkins, sororities dressed in cheeky costumes, and then there’s you! You’re probably crying on a staircase over your first college breakup. That’s quite ‘doomsday’ of you, no? There are two parts of this lyric that we’re obsessed with. First, when we know a breakup is coming, we like to plan it out in our heads to feel in control. That way, our ego won’t get too bruised. But even within that, it sneaks up on us, happening unexpectedly. The classic jerk in this equation finds fun in serving Lizzy a trick.
Age 27
I still play with my food, I’m a child at the grown-up’s table / It’s so hard to believe, but right now, I feel stable
‘chemtrails’
Interestingly, the minute we spot the separation of tables at family gatherings, we immediately want to graduate up to it! But the second we’re there, we realize there’s no difference. It’s just a table. Sure, it’s bigger, perhaps more round, but it still has the same amount of food. In this case, you’re still with your insecurities. Therefore, ‘chemtrails’ is for that 20s crisis.
Age 29
Over and over, watch it all pass / Mom’s getting older, I’m wanting it back
‘Older’
In hindsight, we can all probably recognize when we realize our parents aren’t immortal. It’s like one of those before-and-after moments, a much-sheltered version of us photographed on one card and then the one trying to grasp every moment with them. We’re more so the ones vying for movie nights when we know this piece of unpleasant info. Lizzy McAlpine has that moment in ‘Older!’
Age 30
But my therapist says to just let light be light / So I’m letting him stay around / I think that he’s good for me / This boy that I’ve found
‘Let Light Be Light’
If you’re flirty and thirty, barbed-wired has its desire to wrap itself around the crevices of your heart. Yeah, that’s not as poetic as it sounds! It’s more like meditation sessions and stretching your feet out on your therapist’s couch, trying to rewire your brain into thinking that love is safe. And it is, finally, when the right sort of love comes around!
Age 33
I can see it now / The wedding of the year I can see it now / He stands up there and wipes his tears I can see it now / When all my ghosts disappear
‘all my ghosts
Usually, too, after finding the all-around healthy love that’s traditionally sneaked into a homecooked meal and isn’t tucked away into a happy meal, comes that ring! Whether it’s opal or rose quartz, it doesn’t matter; it’s all the same, especially when you’re marrying the love of your life. In the essence of this song, ghosts can mean two things! Of course, they’re seen as bad habits. But they can also stand for exes if we’re doing some out-of-the-box Lizzy McAlpine thinking. They know everything she did for her previous relationships to fizzle out, one by one, going as she surpasses the stage they exited in her new relationship until they completely poof when she finally says, “I do.” Something in which she considers the end game in the song.
Age 35
Heights marked in pencil / Kitchen utensils / The books don’t say sorry / They don’t crowd and touch / They’re just observers collecting their dust / They know that nothing they say is enough
‘Headstones & Land Mines’
Lizzy’s father, who passed away on the day the pandemic officially started, is the muse of this song. It shows off her visual storytelling style, but perhaps the second verse is the most beautiful! Untouched rooms laced with childhood memories from the chalk etchings in a series of ascending patterns from growing taller to spotting their favorite things until it is a mosaic of what they love holds the most grief. So whether it is one of your parents passing away or simply those parents selling our childhood homes, it is both a feeling of time standing still but knowing everything has changed.
Which milestone currently applies to your life? And therefore, the corresponding Lizzy McAlpine lyric that’s helping you become ‘Older?’ Tweet us it @thehoneypop before her third studio album of the same name comes out on April 5th, just in time for The Older Tour! By then, we know that your hair roots will grow out, and more gorgeous aging wrinkles will adorn your features, meaning you might face another chapter. Who knows?
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