Just four years after releasing her first album “Indigo” in 2018, Lizzy McAlpine released her newest album titled “five seconds flat.” In just a few years, McAlpine’s popularity has skyrocketed, and it seems like 2022 is her year. Fresh off a tour with English singer-songwriter Dodie, and releasing a new album with an accompanying short film, she is headlining her first tour in the U.S. and U.K. starting July 2022.
Released on April 8, “five seconds flat” is McAlpine’s third studio album; it is preceded by “Give Me a Minute” in 2020 and “Indigo” in 2018, as well as an EP released in 2021 titled “When the World Stopped Moving: The Live EP.” The album sits at about 45 minutes in length: composed of 14 songs, it features artists such as Jacob Collier, Ben Kessler, Laura Elliot and FINNEAS. Filled with intense lyrical imagery and recurring motifs, “five minutes flat” hosts a variety of complex emotions — highlighted through unique and personal songwriting — but is nonetheless relatable to anyone who has been in a relationship that didn’t go as planned.
The album opens with “doomsday,” first released as a single in October 2021. The longest song on the album at 4:28, “doomsday” is a brooding, resentful acceptance of fate. Supported by permeating percussion and an acoustic guitar that helps to foster a ghostly atmosphere, the song introduces listeners to McAlpine’s belief that heartbreak — or more specifically, a break-up — is a form of death at the hands of one’s lover.
“[…] heartbreak is like a small death […] I would actually feel like I was dying,” she told Atwood Magazine.
This concept is one that pervades the entire album, invoking images of guns, ghosts and skeletons.
The second track, titled “an ego thing,” brazenly begins with “Guns drawn, slow down” and candidly sets the scene for two battles: the one between her and her partner, and the one between McAlpine and herself. The song shifts between external and internal thoughts and emotions: the verses represent her in-the-moment external anger, and the chorus describes her internal vulnerability. From “Sharp knife, loaded gun / There are two ways we can do this” to “It’s not that I hate you / I hate that it hurt,” the track narrates the struggle of balancing anger and empathy during, and after, an argument. An idiosyncratic, spectral instrumental is the base of the song, supported by expressive percussion that adds to McAlpine’s sharp lyrics.
The fourth track on the album, “called you again” is a guilty, lonely reflection on desperately trying to let go of someone but being unable to. There are unmistakable hints of Dodie, the artist she recently toured with, in the distressed crescendo of repetition leading up to the emotional and musical swell, paralleling the phases of her relationship within this swell. One of the more overwhelming emotional songs, second only to the eighth song, titled “ceilings, called you again” is more in tune with what people first associated McAlpine with: sad, longing songs surrounding heartache.
“weird” featuring Elliot, introduces another theme of “five seconds flat:” memories and the passage, or death, of time. An eerie, childlike atmosphere created by the imagery of ghosts and haunted houses, is supported by a wispy, dreamlike instrumental and by vocals from both McAlpine and Elliot. McAlpine inserts an audio clip from a birthday celebration that adds to the surreal and curious nature of the song while alluding to the passage of time being mourned.
Moving on from feelings of regret and sadness, the ninth and 10th songs on the album titled “what a shame” and “firearm” show a more fiery and angry set of emotions from McAlpine than the others.
Very different from every other song on the album, “what a shame” is lustful and suggestive, even toxic. While toxicity in relationships is not a new idea explored by McAlpine in general, or even in the album thus far, this portrayal doesn’t come from a place of guilt, or remorse; rather, it is from the bitterness of someone else having something that you want. Sweet, yet promiscuous verses like “Please, make me laugh and kiss me / back / And do everything you want to” lead into a more intrusive and teasing chorus, singing “So you’re not allowed / What a shame it would be if you / left her now.”
The song “firearm” is another very unique song from McAlpine. A slow, dejected beginning progressively peaks at sugarless anger with the switch from acoustic guitar to electric, finally slowing down once again into an apathetic melody at the end. The development of her emotions reflected by the music creates a passionate anthem for the rocky emotions that come with the aftermath of a relationship.
The final two songs titled “chemtrails” and “orange show speedway” bring back that feeling of nostalgia and sentimentality found in the song “weird,” but both handle the concept drastically differently. “Chemtrails” is a heartbreaking piano ballad dedicated to McAlpine’s father Mark McAlpine who passed away in 2020. Home audio of her as a child and her dad is implemented into the song, solemnly ending with a “goodnight” from both her and her father. The only song on the album not about romantic or sexual relationships, “chemtrails” deals with heartbreak, love and loss — just of a different magnitude.
“Orange show speedway” is an upbeat, all-encompassing song, perfect to end the album. As a sanguine guitar strum plays, McAlpine sings of relationships, friendships, memories, growing up and looking back. Like “weird” and “chemtrails,” “orange show speedway” adds a piece of personal audio in the form of a voice memo; we can hear a laughing McAlpine declare that “This is the best voice memo diary to date I think.” As she ends the song with “It all kind of feels like an / Orange Show Speedway,” we get the title of the album: “When you’re racing head first / towards something that’ll kill / you in five seconds flat.” Despite knowing she might get hurt, McAlpine races towards love again — the cycle is given another start.
The short film that bears the same name as the album, released on YouTube, is divided into five chapters and is complemented by five songs from the album — “doomsday,” “erase me (ft. Jacob Collier),” “all my ghosts,” “reckless driving” and “hate to be lame (ft. FINNEAS)” — which happen to be in the order of release as singles. Each chapter tells another part of McAlpine’s story of love and loss, and of trying to move on but not being able to forget. Directed by Gus Black, the director of the music video for Phoebe Bridgers’ “Killer,” the 30-minute short film explores the cyclical nature of relationships, using McAlpine’s lyrics and striking visuals to paint a moody and intimate picture of love and sorrow.
Visually, the short film is stunning, using mostly natural lighting to create a realistic, yet extremely vivid scene. Sunrises and sunsets are utilized as both a visual and metaphorical tool: creating pictures cast in shadows and breaching light, while at the same time representing the endings and beginnings of relationships. Like the sun, they too are on a cycle. Colored glass and neon lights are also used to create a dramatic realism that is heightened, akin to how love makes everything so much brighter and vivid.
Coming from theatrical roots, McAlpine employs the help of face paint to create a sort of recurring character in the film: that of the skeleton. As “doomsday” begins, McAlpine believes in a break-up as a kind of death — making the other person into a murderer of sorts. Using this makeup technique, we see the evolution of her as the murdered, and her becoming the “murderer” of someone else in her next relationship.
Poignant and personalized, McAlpine’s film helps us see the meaning of the songs from her perspective. McAlpine’s lyrics touch on core experiences — toxicity, trauma and loss — while still feeling extremely personal, detailed and intimate. In an interview with Dork Magazine, she stated,“I like using specific details — in a weird way, I feel like it makes my story even more relatable. It feels transparent and vulnerable to write without shrouding any details. I don’t think that will ever change.”
McAlpine’s ability to imbue something so intimate with a sense of universality produces a sincere, authentic album that touches on often indescribable emotions. As listeners follow her musical journey through albums, tours and a film — we’re left with a tender excitement for whatever’s left to come.
Hilary Gil is an Entertainment Staff Writer. She can be reached at hsgil@uci.edu.
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