Hurricane | MS MR

Rating: ★★★★★

It's only been a few hours since I first heard of MS MR (pronounced: "Miss Mister"), an American duo featuring vocalist Lizzy Plapinger and producer Max Hershenow, but I think I've already fallen in love.

I discovered MS MR this morning when I saw an advertisement for their debut album, Secondhand Rapture, this morning on YouTube, featuring their single "Hurricane." Usually the advertisements on YouTube are irritating and I try to skip them as often as possible, but the song entranced me, and I had to watch the full advertisement  I actually disregarded the video I was going to watch so I could go find the full song to listen to. (Sorry Jenna Marbles, but I had to find this marvelous piece of work rather than re-watching "Cooking With Sarah Palin.")

"Hurricane" is a slower song powered by pounding drums and Plapinger's voice, which would actually fit well in mainstream pop music just as well as it does the indie music that MS MR is producing now. The hook of the song is extremely catchy. I would have never thought I would be constantly humming the vocal line of "Nights like this / I become afraid / Of the darkness in my heart / Hurricane," but here I am doing it as I type this review.

The accompanying video to "Hurricane" is strange, to say the least, but I like it. In it, Plapinger's skin is colored blue; a scrawny boy is being trained in a gym by some sort of muscular alien; a couple is transferring green slime into each other's mouths while kissing; some girl is leaking pink fluids from her scalp; Hershenow is being confront by a two ghetto kids... That was a long list of events, and they doesn't even cover it all. It's a freaky video, okay?

I really enjoyed "Hurricane," as well as the band's other released single, "Fantasy," when I heard them this morning, and I'm surprised that a simple advertisement on YouTube could easily introduce me to some new music. Fans of indie artists like Florence + The Machine and Lana Del Rey will more than likely take a liking to MS MR; I know I have. They've got a unique sound and I definitely hope that I can get my hands on a copy of Secondhand Rapture sometime soon and give the full album a review.