{"id":1708,"date":"2023-02-26T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/?p=1708"},"modified":"2023-02-27T18:03:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T23:03:54","slug":"ceilings-isnt-the-only-track-off-five-seconds-flat-thats-worth-the-listen-a-review-of-lizzy-mcalpines-sophomore-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/2023\/02\/26\/ceilings-isnt-the-only-track-off-five-seconds-flat-thats-worth-the-listen-a-review-of-lizzy-mcalpines-sophomore-album\/","title":{"rendered":"“ceilings” Isn’t the Only Track Off five seconds flat That’s Worth the Listen: a Review of Lizzy McAlpine’s Sophomore Album."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Lizzy McAlpine is a singer-songwriter who\u2019s been around in the indie scene since 2018, but has recently blown up on Tiktok<\/em> and gained many new fans of a wider variety. \u201cceilings,\u201d the track that has gone viral on social media, is just one of the top-notch songs of McAlpine\u2019s sophomore album five seconds flat<\/em> There are 13 more songs that should be earning the same praise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lizzy McAlpine, originally from Philadelphia, PA, is a 23-year-old musician who is said to have a cross between folk-pop and alternative indie sound. She has been releasing music since 2018 but thanks to TikTok, she is gaining some serious traction. McAlpine currently has over 8 million monthly listeners on Spotify, and over 150 million total streams. \u201cfive seconds flat\u201d features heart-wrenching lyrics and beautiful production as it chronologically captures heartbreak and finding a new beginning. I would urge everyone to listen to it in order the first time around, as it truly is a storytelling masterpiece. McAlpine tells a story of love and loss with 14 emotional tracks that are sure to leave listeners’ hearts aching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Starting off strong, \u201cdoomsday\u201d foreshadows the rest of the album in a marvelously melodramatic way. Dreading an impending breakup, McAlpine crones \u201cdoomsday is close at hand, I\u2019ll book the marching band\u201d. Creating the song with a beautiful blend of mosaic and minor chords, the bridge brings listeners to the tragedy of the relationship.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201can ego thing\u201d comes in hot as track 2. It\u2019s angsty and gritty, and now realizing the relationship was bound for doom anyway instead of mourning it. \u201cerase me (feat. Jacob Collier)\u201d round out the opening triad with the true feelings of McAlpine coming to light; her identity was erased in the relationship. The obvious difference in production is a way of alluding to this, deviating from her acoustic sound, \u201cerase me\u201d has an addicting electronic-sounding chorus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


McAlpine’s collaboration with Collier is just one of the few amazing collaborations on \u201cfive seconds flat.\u201d Laura Elliott, Ben Kessler, and FINNEAS are the other wonderful artists featured, with each track holding notes of their respective sounds. \u201creckless driving (feat. Ben Kessler)\u201d is scream-in-the-car-worthy, while \u201cweird (feat. Laura Elliott)\u201d and \u201chate to be lame (feat. FINNEAS)\u201d slow it down and bring in a more vulnerable mood to the album.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\u201ccalled you again\u201d is relatable for anyone who\u2019s ever thought about texting their ex at 2 am. McAlpine acknowledges that it isn\u2019t a good idea, but it\u2019s too tempting to resist. The song that has brought in many new listeners, \u201cceilings,\u201d continues this lovesick theme; the songwriting extraordinarily captures imagining what could have been.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Moving onto what I believe are the hidden gems of the album, \u201call my ghosts,\u201d \u201cwhat a shame,\u201d and \u201cfirearm\u201d are severely underrated. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201call my ghosts\u201d is reminiscent of McAlpine’s first album, balancing the melancholic feel of \u201cfive seconds flat\u201d with a more cheerful pop sound. The tune shows her overcoming heartbreak in order to move on to someone new. \u201cwhat a shame\u201d goes through the motions of wanting someone you can\u2019t have, accompanied by a simple beat that really lets audiences focus on the lyrics. \u201cfirearm\u201d is full of escalating rage that is finally unleashed after a big build-up. McAlpine takes her listeners through the reality that the love of her partner may not have ever been true. That last sentence was heartbreaking enough, but she wrote a whole song. I highly recommend this track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


The two saddest tracks of the album come one after another, a heavy double hit of \u201cnobody likes a secret\u201d and \u201cchemtrails.\u201d \u201cnobody likes a secret\u201d follows up \u201cfirearm\u201d with a sadder version of love being absent from her relationship, the devastating line \u201cnobody likes a secret, and I was always yours.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, moving away from the loss of her romantic relationship, McAlpine moves into the loss of her relationship with her father after he passed. \u201cchemtrails\u201d is so deeply moving, retelling what it was like to grow up without her dad. It\u2019s especially shattering as the final verse rings out and a voice memo of her father begins to play, where he is heard telling McAlpine to \u201csay goodnight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n


To end the album, McAlpine has the delightfully wistful \u201corange show speedway.\u201d five seconds flat<\/em> has been all about the feeling of loss and death, but this closing track is bursting with life. Love is something that has the potential to \u201ckill you in five seconds flat,\u201d but McAlpine now understands that this shouldn\u2019t stop her from chasing after the possibility of new companionship. By track 14, McAlpine has acknowledged that the possibility of heartbreak will always be present, and that love is a risk worth opening your heart for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Overall, it\u2019s truly difficult for me to find any flaws in the album at all. McAlpine used her incredible songwriting and voice to create the near-perfect work of \u201cfive seconds flat\u201d and if you\u2019ve read this entire article then please please please give it a listen (now!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lizzy McAlpine is a singer-songwriter who\u2019s been around in the indie scene since 2018, but has recently blown up on Tiktok and gained many new fans of a wider variety. \u201cceilings,\u201d the track that has gone viral on social media, is just one of the top-notch songs of McAlpine\u2019s sophomore album five seconds flat There […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":286,"featured_media":1711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1708","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-opinions","8":"entry"},"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/lizzmcalpine2.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2023\/02\/lizzmcalpine2.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Cecile Lessard","author_link":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/author\/cecile-lessard\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/286"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.cortland.edu\/dragon-chronicle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}