Lizzy McAlpine
five seconds flat

Release Date: 2022 | Tracklist

Sometimes an album gradually works on my heart, and sometimes an album decides to set up shop in my brainstem and hold it hostage for days on end. Lizzy McAlpine’s enviable combination of prodigious music theory knowledge and instinctual songwriting talent have allowed five seconds flat to become my mind’s most recent obsession; at the age of 22, she composes and performs with the poise of a woman who has lived several painterly lifetimes. Banal and overdone lyrical topics are given compelling narrative spins from the get go as we bear witness to Lizzy spending the evening with an army of spirits (“all my ghosts”), likening attachment to traumatic injury (“reckless driving”), or bravely opening the album by ending the world (“doomsday”). The only thing more gripping than McAlpine’s lyrics is her undeniable ear for arrangement, with every cut here remaining radio ready on the surface while packing labyrinthine twists and turns into their structures. Observe the way “firearm” appropriately explodes into a rage of distorted guitars, or how “hate to be lame” gorgeously unfolds into a slowing heartbeat of a conclusion. A well-placed silence or tidal wave of harmony takes tracks like “weird” or Jacob Collier theory seminar “erase me” to stratospheric heights, and sometimes Lizzy just offers up an absolute banger like the sublime closer “orange show speedway”.

On five seconds flat, Lizzy McAlpine hits the bulls-eye 14 times in a row. It’s compulsively listenable, charming, playful, and is able to display a sincere vulnerability and depth that is truly admirable in an era of algorithms that countless other singer-songwriters are becoming desperate to manipulate. From indie pop nostalgia to foreboding acoustic numbers to heavenly piano ballads, McAlpine wears several different hats here and breathes life into every sound she has to offer on the record. It’s a triumph of an album, and it’s wonderful to think about what the future holds for her.

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3.8 excellent