Ali T, 'Pancakes at Midnight' 

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• Ali T, Pancakes at Midnight

(Self-released, CD, digital)

A late-night plateful of syrupy, buttered pancakes sounds like a fantastic idea. If only there were a place to get that in Vermont other than Denny's. America's Diner is only fun when you're 16 and just finished strike on the fall production of Bye Bye Birdie.

Royalton singer-songwriter and producer Alison Turner (who records as Ali T) named her third LP Pancakes at Midnight, an evocative phrase that appears in her song "Stoner." A pop-punk-lite throwback with unambiguous lyrics and instantly memorable hooks, the track encapsulates the album's vibe. Turner clearly came of age around the time Green Day were American idiots and Avril Lavigne had a lot to say about sk8er bois.

But Turner skewers nostalgia instead of worshipping it. She couples the stylistic hallmarks of the early 2000s with contemporary subject matter, contrasting life now, 20 years on, with life in the George W. Bush era. People didn't sing about mental health issues or late-stage capitalism when a FOX drama about the struggles of a bunch of rich, white kids in Orange County, Calif., was the hottest shit on TV.

But they sure do now. With Pancakes at Midnight, Turner takes a snapshot of adulting in 2023 while also accomplishing a long-held ambition: to write every chord and lyric, play every instrument, and produce the whole damn thing to boot. As she recently told this publication, "Just seeing a woman behind the console is so powerful ... I get a great deal of satisfaction knowing that every part of this album is me."

Opener "Working It Out" introduces uncertainty as one of the album's recurrent themes. Ensconced in some serious Blink-182 energy — think quick, bright guitar arpeggios like the SoCal trio's "Stay Together for the Kids" — the artist wonders why, after she's known someone for so long, the two of them are "still working it out."

Turner is at her most anxious on tracks such as "Poor Millennial," a song that magnifies the societal crap pile dealt to the children of boomers. Every TV pundit and SEO headline had something negative to say about her cohort when it was the generation du jour.

Not in so many words, Turner reminds listeners that members of her generation only "killed" so many industries because they had to use the money they would have spent on paper napkins and cable TV to pay back their student loans, a Herculean feat with no end in sight.

But, like any good millennial, Turner can't let herself feel her own struggle without pointing out that she has it good compared with others. She ends the album on irony with "Lucky One," musically stripped to guitar and vocals (including some gorgeous harmonies). If feelings always have to be filtered through others' experiences, is she lucky — or isn't she?

It actually doesn't matter, because the album proves that Turner is in control and making her own luck.

Pancakes at Midnight is available at sheisalit.bandcamp.com and on all major streaming platforms. Turner performs on Wednesday, April 26, at the Higher Ground Showcase Lounge in South Burlington.