"Hurricane" is probably New York duo MS MR's (vocalist Lizzy Plapinger and producer Max Hershenow) best known single, and a perfect introduction to their brand of indie dream pop/alt-rock/dark wave/electroshock music and surreal 90s-inspired imagery (the duo initially released a Tumblr-inspired music video before releasing a video which featured themselves).
As FORBES contributor Anthony Wing Kosner notes, "Hurricane" works directly on a lyrical level - it's "a fairly straight forward confessional pop song enhanced by a crepuscular, and slightly creepy, electronic mood, like an old TV in a dark room as daylight fades". Plapinger's vocals draw a fine line between hopelessness and triumph as she sings about the dissolution of a relationship and gaining hard-won knowledge about the 'darkness' within her twisted psyche:
'The storm never cameOr it never wasDidn't know getting lost in the blueIt meant I wound up losing youWelcome to the inner workings of my mindSo dark and foul I can't disguise, can't disguiseNights like this I become afraidOf the darkness in my heartHurricane'
Source of lyrics:
While hardly original, there's nevertheless something compelling about MS MR's brand of doom-and-gloom confessional melodrama, which is visually enhanced by the Gregg Araki-esque scenes of adolescent intensity portrayed in the music video (with some interesting surrealist flourishes). I find it hard to take the lyrics seriously on screen, but as Pitchfork's Katherine St. Asaph notes, Plapinger's vocal delivery and Hershenow's production makes the melodramatic confessions intriguing enough:
"Plapinger's vocals are shaded brittle, confident, or spooky as is called for. She'll turn a folk curtsy for a sparrow metaphor, strut her melisma through a verse like the Sugababes' Siobhan Donaghy, or give up words entirely; the one commonality is that they're always a shade too vulnerable, too clear in a busy mix, or too hesitant where she'd otherwise be belting. She's the figure lit like a spotlight amid the dusk, lost but compelling".
