Album Review: MS MR - Secondhand Rapture

Since dropping their debut single in early 2012, MS MR have been sending goth-synth-pop shockwaves across the globe. It may sound like an unusual mash of genres but Lizzy Plapinger, co-founder of boutique New York label Neon Gold, and producer Max Hershenow's debut collaboration is a unique 12-track record packed with standalone singles.

While Secondhand Rapture is definitely a pop album bursting with earworm hooks and leading lady emotion, this first offering from the duo manages to somehow fall outside of traditional genres. MS MR have crafted a collection of polished elegies and high-drama doom-dances that utilise the formulas of pop music but aren't entirely of that world. Rather than cheesy synths and predictable melodies, Secondhand Rapture's strings and pianos are utilised in a dark and weird way. Plapinger has confessed to not considering herself a vocalist but rather an artist, constructing a record of echoes, organs and swooping orchestral moments.

Head Is Not My Home and No Trace are two of the record's obvious singles and Dark Doo Wop is a highlight, exposing Hershenow's stripped back production and providing Plapinger with a more vulnerable moment. Bones – chosen for Game of Throne's season three trailer – exhibits an intriguing darker side. However, while the album's lyrics have moments when they are catchy and powerful they sometimes err on the ugly side of pop with lines such as “I still think of you and all the shit you put me through”.

Despite this, Secondhand Rapture is by no means a second-hand effort, built on the expectations of established genres, but rather a personal take on pop by two fresh, young New Yorkers worth watching.