Time to grab that flow dress and run into the sunset.

My mindless scrolling is ceased as this song floods my ears, women running in beautiful dresses, Ceilings reaches its crescendo and my heart holds its breath, a rare feeling that only happens when I am on the precipice of greatness, an outstretched hand reaching out for another, but the distance is just too great, this song is the soundtrack for the tragedy of what if.

From for you to the World, Ceilings by Lizzie McAlpine shot to the first top ten of the official UK singles chart. This is not her first appearance in the charts though with her album Five Seconds flat reach 5th place on Heatseekers Album in 2022. This song has seen her perform on Jimmy Fallon’s The Tonight show to millions of viewers and a live audience.

This breakthrough single has spotlighted the ethereal, poetic talented that is Lizzie. Her previous work has seen her collab with the likes of John Mayer which landed her, her first Grammy nomination for best instrument, arrangement, and vocals.

And what a voice she has as her sound narrates the journey of an idealised relationship. The truth is disappointments don’t matter when you’re in love, the hole in your shoe, the stain on your shirt all muted by their hands on your face, round your waist, the lips your fingers trace. The idyllic, Sunday morning love, the smell of coffee the only disturbance to your union, the only stir to your spoon. The fresh flowers in each room, the smile at the door after a long day sort of love, the love you know is not real, it doesn’t exist.

Love can be this, but it can also be, lost keys on a late morning, dinner gone cold left on the side, smoke from a neglected candle, the singed smell spilling into a bedroom. Spilled paint on the fresh carpet, raised voices and wet necks. Love is passionate, love is pain, the sacrifice we give for it could drive us insane, but when you’re held close, when that toast is buttered by them, cut into a heart, we call the tears love, the sleepless nights, the rough, the joy its a rubix cube puzzle of emotions and I think Ceilings captures the line of what could have been and what actually was. Love is angry, it demands to be felt.

“Touch me like nobody else does
Lovely to just lay here with you
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”

Desperation from deprivation, the passing eye of a stranger, an imagined life with them from a glance at their iris, not knowing if it was blue or brown, you know your kids first name and the colour of your front door you’d pick out together. Lovers spilled on pages, stretched on the screen all the skin you touch in between, skin stuck to bedsheets, you’re filled but you’re not complete. The fantasy, to be important enough to be loved especially by a person like you, is an indulgent one, that we sip as our eyes glaze over at work, as we wait for the bus to turn, the rain drops on the window showing us a life we want to live, one where we are loving each other, one where we are the people I see us as.

“But it’s not real
And you don’t exist
And I can’t recall the last time I was kissed”

The songs heart breaking realisation comes in the concluding verse. This heart balloon bursts, recognising the hand you hold is your own, you are sat alone in your car, where are you driving too? not to them, they’re not real, you haven’t met them yet. You’re home, a potential dinner is in the fridge, but you pack yourself away to your unmade bed, why tidy it, why make it special if it’s just for you? The sudden horror as the intrusive thought that perhaps you are decaying, you are not enough to be loved so therefore must make it up. 

Lizzie is already hard at work on her next album which she describes as the “most authentic music [she’s] ever written.