If you like Lizzy McAlpine, go listen to Searows, Sydney Rose, Delaney Bailey, Julien Baker, Rachel Chinouriri and Abby Powledge. What they share with her is the move "ceilings" is built on: a scene drawn so exactly you are standing in it, rain in your shoes and a kiss in the car, and then a turn that changes what the scene meant. Here they are one at a time, with songs to start on.
Who sounds like Lizzy McAlpine?
1. Searows: one voice, one guitar, one empty house
Searows is Alec Duckart, from the Pacific Northwest, and the early songs were made in his bedroom with a guitar and not much else. "House Song" walks through an empty house: a name carved over the door, a height mark on the wall that "someone will draw a new one / And cover it before they leave." Then the last lines turn on the singer himself: "Something is rotten inside of me." Guard Dog (2022) is where to start. Death in the Business of Whaling (2026) is his first record made outside the bedroom, and it heads somewhere much bigger and louder.
Start with:
- House Song (2023)
- Keep The Rain (2022)
- End Of The World (2023)
2. Sydney Rose: the dream that gives it away
"We Hug Now" was one of the biggest songs of 2025, and it does exactly what "ceilings" does. It is a friendship that fell apart, coffee in Canton and a hug that feels strange because they never used to hug, and then the chorus admits where the warm part is happening: "Sometimes I go to sleep / And I'm still seventeen." The line everyone posted is from the bridge: "You're just thinkin' it's a small thing that happened / The world ended when it happened to me." I Know What I Want (2025) is the EP it came from.
Start with:
- We Hug Now (2025)
- Turning Page (2020)
- Briston (2024)
Read our take on Over. Read our take on Track Team.
3. Delaney Bailey: the one who promises the moon
"j's lullaby (darlin' i'd wait for you)" took off in 2022, and it starts as a list of grand offers: the sun, the stars, a lasso round the moon straight out of It's a Wonderful Life. The second verse shows what the offers are for: "I'd put the beach in your backyard / In hopes to be enough for you to stay." That is a Lizzy McAlpine turn, the big romantic gesture revealed as bargaining. Concave (2026) is her first full album.
Start with:
- j's lullaby (darlin' i'd wait for you) (2022)
- Finish Line (2021)
- Love Letter From The Sea to The Shore (2022)
4. Julien Baker: the one who turns it up
Start with Turn Out the Lights (2017), and start with "Appointments." The verses are someone staying in while their partner goes out, being told to talk to somebody and stop missing appointments. Then the song repeats one line until it becomes a prayer: "I know that it's not, but I have to believe that it is." If what you love in Lizzy McAlpine is the build, this is the build at full size. Little Oblivions (2021) adds a full band, and Send A Prayer My Way (2025), made with TORRES, is a country record that still sounds exactly like her.
Start with:
- Appointments (2017)
- Turn Out the Lights (2017)
- Favor (2021)
5. Rachel Chinouriri: the one you can dance to
The one artist here who will get you moving. "All I Ever Asked" is a bright guitar song with a "woo-hoo" hook made for a crowd, and underneath it is a list of grievances: "Just a little more time, was it really that hard to do?" What A Devastating Turn of Events (2024) is the album. If you have worn out the sad half of Lizzy McAlpine's catalogue, go here next.
Start with:
- All I Ever Asked (2024)
- Broken chair (2026)
- Make believe (2026)
Read our take on Broken chair. Read our take on One Song Away from Crying.
6. Abby Powledge: the find
A Texas songwriter now in Nashville, with no album yet and a run of singles that keep getting better. "the way that i am" is a promise that someone will want her as she is, "both callused hands" and all. "winding down" is pure Lizzy McAlpine: it opens on a pictured slow dance and red wine, then admits what really happened, "talking every night turned into talking on the weekends." I think "stick around" (2026), about being someone's girlfriend for the first time and being scared of how much it matters, is her best song yet. This is the one on the list you get to say you heard first.
Start with:
- stick around (2026)
- the way that i am (2024)
- winding down (2025)
Read our take on stick around.
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