mukund shyam

I was going through Jacob Collier’s artist profile on Spotify when I saw that he was featured on a song titled erase me by Lizzy McAlpine. Curious, I added the song to my queue and listened to it.

And it was probably one of the best songs I’ve ever heard.

This is how I learnt about Lizzy McAlpine. After listening to erase me, I heard a few more of her songs - reckless driving, ceilings, and hate to be lame (with FINNEAS) - and I fell in love with all of them!

So, I decided to listen to her latest album, five seconds flat, and I think it’s one of the most underrated albums of 2022. It’s definitely one of the best albums I’ve ever heard.

The Vibe

This album’s vibe is very distinct and coherent, to an extent that very few other albums I’ve listened are (maybe only a few Taylor Swift albums like folklore or Midnights have a vibe that flows through all the tracks this much).

Most of the songs in this album are fairly dystopian and sad (doomsday comes to mind), with a lot of them being breakup songs. What I really love is that the album takes on various different shades of the same vibe: with different styles, genres, and instruments being used to convey similar emotions.

The album reminds me of a monochrome painting: different shades of a single colour being used to create a cohesive image.

The Songwriting

One of the best parts of this album is its songwriting.

All the songs in this album are written by McAlpine, and it really shows: the lyrics themselves are absolutely incredible, but they’re just augmented by McAlpine’s delivery in the songs.

Also, conceptually speaking, the songs are so incredibly cool: doomsday, for example, is a song about planning your own death; while firearm is about, I think, a toxic relationship.

The lyrics aren’t really from the Taylor Swift school of incredible narration mixed with pure emotion; they tend to be a lot more “smartly” written (in search of a better word). Instead of being raw, the lyrics in these songs are extremely well thought out and articulate, and the lines just seem to flow from one to the next incredibly well.

The Vocals

Lizzy McAlpine is an absolutely incredible singer. Like, insanely, insanely good.

She reminds me a little bit of early Billie Eilish (like Ocean Eyes era) in terms of the style of her vocals, albeit with fewer stacks and harmonies. Her voice is so incredibly pleasing, and the (basically perfect) vocals just augment the incredible songwriting in the album.

And it’s not that she only sings in a single style: ceilings, for example, is a lot softer, with airy vocals and sparse harmonies; erase me has more harmonies (in the typical Jacob Collier style); and orange show speedway is much more pop-ey, with a more powerful vocal tone.

I definitely think McAlpine is one of the most underrated vocalists right now!

The Production

The album is produced by Philip Etherington and Ehren Ebbage, and in my opinion, both of them were able to understand the vision behind five seconds flat almost perfectly. It feels like the album was written and produced just by one person!

Sonically, the album is very pop with elements of “musician music” - something I like to call “Berklee Pop” - and it’s amazing. It fits in with the vibe of the album perfectly.

Specifically, I think the producers were able to get the perfect mix of acoustic and electronic instruments in this album, which really helped its emotional aspect come across well.

These guys also seem to be absolute geniuses at synth sound design; all the songs have banger synths (the arpeggio in erase me is so awesome).

My Favourite Songs

I think my favourite song in this album is probably erase me, with Jacob Collier. I love the first few songs I heard in the album too: ceilings is amazing, as is hate to be lame with FINNEAS (whose vocal tone in this song is ridiculously good).

I also really love doomsday, both as a concept and as a song itself.

orange show speedway is an absolute banger, and an amazing end to the album. all my ghosts is really nice as well; I love the writing, and it’s a nice break emotionally from the rest of the album.

If you get the time (and you already love the Berklee Pop-type music by people like Laufey, Charlie Puth, or Jacob Collier), please listen to five seconds flat. It’s definitely the most underrated album of 2022!

Thanks for reading!