Review: Doomsday – Lizzy McAlpine
- by Nicholas Gaudet
- in Reviews
Lizzy McAlpine’s returning single, Doomsday, is bluesy, raw, and one of her greatest releases so far.
When it comes to cozy, folky-yet-harmonically-complex singer-songwriter tunes, there’s very few that match Lizzy McAlpine’s talent. Her natural ability to travel through far-out chord progressions, all the while making it sound accessible and all the more pleasant is a true gift to us listeners. Her previous efforts, Give Me A Minute, was one of the greatest releases of last year just on its songwriting alone. Her clever use of fingerstyle guitar, and subtle runs that are so cleverly sprinkled were out of this world. While the guitar has a strumming-style in this track, the two elements are very present in ‘doomsday’ and more refined than ever before. The orchestration, along with the rest of the instrumentation, feels grand, growing more epic as the song progresses, taking small breaks for a few bars for emphasis. The prestigious balance between the loud climaxes of the track with the laid-back scene-setting passages are a dance that Lizzy truly nailed in this tune. The production is just roomy enough to stay true to her style, all the while sounding crystal-clear where it counts. The switch-up in the latter section of the song is both unexpected and shocking in the best way possible. She manages to keep the overarching ideas intact all the while telling a story that words simply can’t tell. The key change especially hits, sounding stylistically like a Broadway theater performance, which Lizzy always emanated ever so slightly in her music.
Doomsday is not only Lizzy’s most ambitious project yet, but it’s arguably her best. The masterful ways in which all elements were brought together is a work of art to say the least. What strikes as the most memorable in this composition is the journey in which Lizzy takes you from start to finish. Skipping through the song will not do any part justice – each and every movement has to be experienced to enhance both the previous and the following, and that alone is a feat worth celebrating. ‘Doomsday’ is, in my opinion, a true masterpiece.
