As much as I try to avoid cliché, the one thing that sucks about getting older is just not having good instincts around new music. Even appreciating Top 40 pop has led to certain confusion, as most of the hits are geared at generations much younger than me. Trying to find something that I can latch onto and appreciate is difficult. That is why in 2022 I’ve made more of a concerted effort to put aside concerns around what is popular and simply try to find music that “clicks.” It’s something that when I put it on, suddenly I’m immersed with discovery and awe. I listen to a smattering of new singles weekly, trying to find a sound that I would love to see develop and hopefully find careers that will grow into something amazing.
I forget what lead me to Lizzy McAlpine two weeks ago. Maybe it was seeing that “five seconds flat” clocked in at a cozy 45 minutes or that Finneas had collaborated on “hate to be lame.” There was something about its presence among the shuffle of options that ultimately made me indulge. While I have heard many contemporary singer-songwriters create melodies around teenage angst, there was something almost immediate about McAlpine. Sure she was moody and “doomsday” was yet another song about being miserable in an overdramatic fashion, but I was swept in by the lyrics. It’s the type of moment that makes you pause and realize the brilliance of youth, that one could be so free as to express heartbreak in such grand fashion:
Pull the plug in SeptemberI don't wanna die in JuneI’d like to start planning my funeralI've got work to do
By the chorus, she’s singing about how someone is interfering because they’re a narcissist. In equally compelling lines, she notes “Doomsday is close at hand/I’ll book the marching band to play as you speak.” Already McAlpine conveys beautiful discordance, suggesting just how bad this relationship is. It’s a somber song that stumbles along with theatrics in tow, melodrama parallel to sincerity as the latter half reveals further details that are claimed to be based on actual events. Still, in just 4.5 minutes, I am hooked on the album and want to know more.
Who is Lizzy McAlpine and why am I just now finding out about her? It’s safe to say that I find almost all of “five seconds flat” to have something that makes me excited as a listener. She is playing with form so cleverly that I smile through even the more tragic of numbers. Moments like “reckless driving” again play off simple motifs, but the way she handles a relationship at odds with itself is catchy, finding the harmonies lulling the listener into peace even as it instinctively sounds like it’s heading off of a cliff. There’s “weird” which goes into something more insular, using occult imagery to detail feeling like a moment has passed by. Even as it slides into gimmickry, it has a poetic honesty that is hard to ignore.
The album is her second release after “Give Me A Minute” along with a few LPs and an impressive social media ascension. Her first album gained a lot of traction thanks to releases on Soundcloud and Spotify, eventually earning hundreds of millions of streams that were in small ways boosted by TikTok. Because of this, there is the assumption that she is a star solely because of the clock app, though she would be the first to suggest its inaccuracy. In the modern age, everything is valuable in launching careers, but it’s clear that she was striving for more than 30-second viral hits. At least based on “five seconds flat,” she wears her heart too much on her sleeve, creating lines destined to stick in the listener’s mind, recalling their own romantic woes. Sure they’re catchy and deserve plenty of love but they’re hardly ephemera. It makes sense then that she would gain some popular fans, including Ben Platt, Phoebe Bridgers, and Camila Cabello along with a collaboration by recent Oscar-winner Finneas.
I’ll admit that sometimes it’s easy for McAlpine to get lost in the shuffle, especially as more artists like Bridgers and Olivia Rodrigo crop up, relying on the confessional style to propel acoustic balladry. This isn’t to discredit anyone’s work, but McAlpine feels like she’s one of the few to reach beyond the familiar and put a stamp on her own sound. While I am at times a bit confused as to why “five seconds flat” hasn’t gotten more press coverage (or an updated Wikipedia page), I am still excited to feel like I discovered something that seeks to grow bigger as the years go on. She has too much versatility not to and I’m sure her current tour with dodie will only help matters.
What I love about the album is how orchestrated it all is. Everything plays like a journey through the emotional highs and lows of love, finding the themes of intimacy and partying cropping up randomly. McAlpine isn’t afraid to discuss drinking and acting careless, though all with a certain self-reflection in mind. It’s an album about the joys of life, but also the lessons learned from having experienced those formative moments. McAlpine has a literary quality to her lyrics, finding “all my ghosts” presenting the image of meeting someone at a 7-11 with this beautiful sense of potential. She sings of walking around in those early moments of bonding, believing in what’s to come. It’s sweet, perfectly nudged in more aching tracks that make the moment feel more significant.
Harmonies on tracks like “reckless driving” and “hate to be lame” add a haunting quality to her earnest vocals, making everything more ethereal as she contemplates what matters in life. She claims to have been inspired in part by Bon Iver, and it shows in moments like these that manage to produce affecting choruses that turn the theme of longing and connection into something more poignant. In those moments the voices swirl around each other, trying to find that perfect harmony, but rarely does it arrive. It takes someone with talent to make something so discordant and in constant flux work in an almost spiritual manner.
By the concluding track “Orange Show Speedway,” the listener has been on an impressive journey. While these are all familiar emotions, McAlpine finds a way to turn simple acoustic riffs into a soulful journey, quietly going inward with occasional blasts of electric angst (“what a shame”) to punctuate. There is some narrative tissue, as evident in the promotional video known as five seconds flat the film, but mostly this is a journey of self-confidence where each pit stop brings with it something formative.
At the final one, it’s almost like the happy ending that serves as the polar opposite of “doomsday.” Gone is the need for marching bands and in its place is a song about three years on, where she visits a place once familiar and notices how it’s changed. She looks back at being 18 and noticing what mattered to her then, wondering what she could do to get it back. Does she really want it though? It’s here that the album’s title comes into focus, referencing how she’s racing head-first into something that will kill her in five seconds flat. Does knowing the outcome mean she’ll do things differently? With all of this self-reflection and personal growth, one can hope so.
I don’t know much about McAlpine other than she recorded this album in Oregon but got bored and left for a few weeks to mentally recoup. There’s an aspirational vibe to her that is immediately compelling, especially since she claims to have work planned for her third album already. Every new release is supposedly different, so odds are that there will be yet another pleasant surprise in the near future from her. I can only hope she keeps her insightful lyricism in check, continuing to find profundity in such intimate moments.
As someone who loves storyteller musicians like Lana Del Rey and Courtney Barnett, it makes sense why I latched onto her so easily. This isn’t a simple regurgitation of emotions. Consistently, she presents familiar struggles with an inspiring twist, turning nights of drunken hook-ups into deeper explorations of self, what it means to be in love when certain feelings are absent. Most of all, she does so with impressive dexterity. Her musicality invites the listener in and makes them comfortable, as if listening to an audiobook of her diary, of poetry that has been thought out while still being creatively vulnerable. You can’t help but root for her. She isn’t simply bitter about a break-up. She’s genuinely curious about what went wrong and what she could do better for next time.
I write this mostly because “five seconds flat” is the first discovery I’ve made in months that has gotten me excited. There has been plenty of music where a handful of singles draw me in, but this album has been replayed a handful of times, eager to find new lines to enjoy and notice how theatrical her craft is. Every song tells a story that feels lived in, managing to be full of detail, creating emotion in the process that leaves you connecting to something in your own life. It’s beautiful, sweet, and I only wish the best for her. If nothing else, I am curious to see what else she has to offer. It can only be good, right?
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