It took just $500 for MS MR to rent out the spare Brooklyn rooms where the NYC-based duo would record their debut album, the dark, surreal-pop Secondhand Rapture. It stands to reason, then, that this summer's follow-up, How Does It Feel, would follow much the same DIY production model, with vocalist Lizzy Plapinger and producer Max Hershenow sequestering themselves in a windowless room in Bushwick to write and record new material. But, as with their debut, they had the chance to spiff things up by laying down finishing touches to their tracks in some of the world's most famous studios like Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios in NYC.
A first look at the fruit of their labors can be seen in the music video for the haunting acoustic version of "Wrong Victory," which we're premiering here. Shot in the attic of a '70s-era house in South London, the video features Plapinger -- whose aesthetic in the clip is a cross between a retro lounge singer and $-in-the-name-era-Kesha -- crooning lines like, "When your skin doesn't feel like home," while Hershenow taps at a tinny, intentionally out-of-tune piano. "'Wrong Victory' is one of our favorite songs from our new record," say Plapinger and Hershenow. "We love the intimacy and emotion of Lizzy's vocal in the recorded track and felt like it would lend itself well to a stripped-back acoustic version."
The more mature feel of the track relative to prior hits "Hurricane" and "Fantasy" bodes well for their upcoming album, which they describe as an evolution from their previous work. After spending two years touring, becoming better musicians and learning how to better articulate what we wanted to create, we approached this album with much more intentionality," Plapinger and Hershenow say. "The drama and darkness is still there, but rather than wallowing in the angst as we did on the first record ... we've tried to incorporate an element of perseverance, a light at the end of the tunnel." Give the video a watch, above, and keep an eye out for the album when it comes out July 17th via Columbia Records. You can pre-order a copy HERE.
