The difficulty of releasing EPs before a debut album is knowing how much to keep back before you risk peaking too soon. We're not entirely sure that much-talked-about (and PressPLAY favourites) Lizzy Plapinger and Max Hershenow, the eponymous Ms and Mr, have quite mastered that balance for the blogging age.
Of course, what we have heard already is still scintillating the second time around. Opener Hurricane is by far one of the best written songs from a new band in recent memory - a profound paean to depression masquerading as an enchanting pop song. The vocals, the macabre production, none of it can be faulted - proof that no one should ever get away with lazy songwriting. Meanwhile, the tone of Bones cements what MS MR are all about - they mask the morbid under lashings of exquisitely produced chillwave (despite how they drip-fed their EP, we refuse to call anything 'Tumblr-wave', ever).
Fantasy and Dark Doo Wop still sound as wonderful as ever; out of the newer material, Think of You is the one that truly stands out with it's fuck-you military-drum chorus, followed closely by Head is Not My Home and No Trace. Towards the end of the album, there's a slight risk of song succumbing to a 'MS MR' template, but then this also might be due to the fact that none of it quite measures from anything that's led up to this point.
While Secondhand Rapture is certainly a strong, gorgeous debut, the overall impression does seem a lot like its title: secondhand, given how much we've experienced before. Nevertheless, while we may have already heard the best of MS MR for this release, we're confident that we certainly haven't heard the best of them yet.