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Album

five seconds flat

Lizzy McAlpine

About “five seconds flat”

five seconds flat is the sophomore studio album by American singer-songwriter Lizzy McAlpine, released on April 8, 2022, via Harbour Artists & Music. McAlpine has traded the soft folk glow of her debut album, Give Me A Minute, for a darker indie twilight. In an interview with Atwood Magazine, she explained this evolution:

I definitely made the conscious decision to go as far away from Give Me A Minute as possible, especially sound-wise. When I was making five seconds flat, that’s who I was as an artist, which the album reflects. Obviously, we grow and evolve as humans, and I wanted to reflect that in this album.

Older and wiser, McAlpine has gathered her thoughts into a musical journey designed through heartbreak, regret, and rebirth. She uses her voice and songwriting to express the complex emotions of young adulthood while reclaiming power over situations in which she once felt powerless. With the exception of “chemtrails”—which deals with the death of her father—five seconds flat is divided into three acts: she leaves behind a relationship she had in college (“doomsday,” “an ego thing,” “erase me,” “called you again”); feels lost and alone in the process (“all my ghosts,” “reckless driving,” “weird,” “ceilings,” “what a shame”); and heals enough to fall in love again (“firearm,” “hate to be lame,” “nobody likes a secret,” “orange show speedway”).

In an interview with EUPHORIA, Lizzy McAlpine shared the inspiration of the album’s name, five seconds flat.

There’s a lyric in the last song on the record, “orange show speedway” that goes, “When you’re racing headfirst towards something that’ll kill you in five seconds flat / When I’m racing headfirst towards something that I want back.” That lyric really sums up the entire theme of the album and the short film. It just means that even though falling in love is terrifying and I’ve gotten my heart broken in the past, I still want it back because it’s beautiful.

Additionally, Lizzy further elaborates in an interview with kinda cool magazine:

And basically, it’s just about how, even though relationships and feelings and humans are complicated and weird and messy and no one ever really knows what they’re doing, and even though I’ve gotten hurt so many times before in the past from relationships and all that stuff, I still search for love and seek it out because it also can be beautiful on rare occasions. And the whole five seconds flat thing – the lyric – is basically like, “I’m racing headfirst towards something that could kill me in five seconds flat, racing headfirst towards everything that I want back.” Just being like love, relationships could kill you in five seconds flat, but I still want it.

Along with the album, McAlpine combined the strengths of her music and the cinematic visual art to communicate the journey she has been on with the release of ‘five seconds flat, the film’. All but two songs from the album appear in the film. The singer came up with the idea and the plot on her own, “I had whole pages of complex explanations about what the film was about.” Because she feels that heartbreak is like a little death, McAlpine imagined the metaphor that every time she gets her heart broken, she is painted as a skeleton in the film.

“five seconds flat” Q&A

  • Is there a film for this project?

    On April 7, 2022, Lizzy McAlpine premiered five seconds flat, the film on YouTube.

  • Official Behind The Scenes

    For the album’s release, Lizzy McAlpine published a “behind the scenes” video for both the short film:

    And the album itself:

What is the most popular song on five seconds flat by Lizzy McAlpine?
When did Lizzy McAlpine release five seconds flat?

Album Credits

More Lizzy McAlpine albums