Lizzy McAlpine Is Back With “Angel,” and It Sounds Like an Artist Starting Over on Her Own Terms

Two years ago, Lizzy McAlpine wrote the first song for an album she wasn’t sure she’d ever finish describing. This week, that song finally has a home. “The Light in the Painting,” released July 23 alongside a music video McAlpine co-directed with longtime collaborator Neema Sadeghi, is the lead single from her fourth studio album, “Angel” — officially confirmed for September 18 via RCA Records.

McAlpine has called the track the album’s natural entry point, describing it as capturing the euphoric rush of a new connection at its start. That it took nearly two years to arrive says something about how carefully “Angel” has come together. Recorded on and off around Los Angeles with returning producers Mason Stoops and Taylor Mackall — the team behind her acclaimed 2024 album “Older” — the 14-track project is being described as a genuine sonic expansion, pulling from ’70s Laurel Canyon folk as much as contemporary indie.

The album arrives at an interesting inflection point in McAlpine’s career, one that’s stretched well beyond music since “Older” turned her into one of the most critically trusted songwriters of her generation. She sold out international dates at Radio City Music Hall and the Greek Theatre behind that record, whose deluxe edition, “Older (and Wiser),” produced a platinum-certified single in “Spring Into Summer” and two gold-certified tracks. Since then, McAlpine has made her Broadway debut as Nellie Collins in “Floyd Collins” at Lincoln Center — a performance The New York Times singled out as a genuine vocal standout — and her feature film debut in “Only What We Carry,” which premiered at this year’s Tribeca Festival.

That range shows up in how “Angel” is being framed. Rather than a breakup record or a victory lap, McAlpine and her team describe it as chronicling a return to self, threading themes of love, heartbreak, and the friendships that carry someone through both. The abstract, multicolored cover art — a departure from any kind of portrait — reinforces that this era is meant to feel emotionally expansive rather than narrowly personal.

Angel: What We Know So Far

With a fanbase that’s already proven it will fill arenas and Broadway houses alike, the real test for “Angel” isn’t whether people will show up. It’s whether this sonic stretch into folk-rock territory carries the same emotional weight that made “Older” a career-defining record in the first place.