With their first album Secondhand Rapture, dark pop duo, MS MR, (comprised of vocalist Lizzy Plapinger and producer Max Hershenow) delve in macabre storytelling with hints of classic-horror-movie-score inspiration. Plapinger’s voice is like a milder, softer Adele while Hershenow’s production and mixing creates an eerie, yet danceable atmosphere.
The album starts off with the title track, “Hurricane,” preparing you for the storm about to strike as Plapinger softly sings, “Welcome to the inner workings of my mind / So dark and foul.” And that’s exactly what the album consists of: dark and foul lyrics ready to steal souls.
After the introduction, “Bones” features frightening piano melodies, dance beats and violins as if it were a modern day Monster Mash.
Most of the tracks feature heavy drums pounding with an upbeat piano, but some tracks could be standalone songs as they lose the overall production. “Dark Doo Wop,” is a haunting funeral march with a throwback to Motown drenched in a dark optimism as Plapinger sings, “The world is going to burn, burn, burn so you should stick around.”
I’d say “Salty Sweet” had a beach-bum vibe but because of the context and dark overtones presented in the album, I’d call it more of a lagoon-dwelling feel. The radio-ready dance track “Think of You” continues the theme of “ugly, yet beautiful” by singing on the “decadence of decay.”
After “Twenty Seven,” a song that starts of sweet but takes a turn for the dark as the piano melody drops lower and lower and features the line, “I have this dream where I cut out my tongue so I can’t make promises that can never be done,” the tracks begin to sound similar, although “No Trace” does feature a powerful instrumental ready to be played in a major motion picture.
The final song, “Strings” is the simplest. With a stripped down production leaving the heavy drum beats to rest, the song focuses on Plapinger’s voice. It’s as if the duo tired of singing of death and decay for a whole album.
Overall, the album picks apart questions about love and the afterlife and throws them together in a tidal wave of loud beats and spooky riffs. Besides a couple of songs the duo could have left off (“This Isn’t Control” and “Ash Tree Lane”), the tracks are masterfully produced and Plapinger’s soft soul of a voice is easy on the ears.
Top 3 Best Songs:
1. Think of You
2. Salty Sweet
3. Bones
Top 3 Worst Songs:
1. Ash Tree Lane
2. This Isn’t Control
3. BTSK