Marina and The Diamonds – Electra Heart

Release date: April 27, 2012
Label: 679, Atlantic

Tracklist

  1. Bubblegum Bitch
  2. Primadonna [MV, Acoustic]
  3. Lies [MV]
  4. Homewrecker [MV]
  5. Starring Role [Acoustic]
  6. The State of Dreaming
  7. Power & Control [MV]
  8. Living Dead
  9. Teen Idle
  10. Valley of the Dolls
  11. Hypocrates
  12. Fear and Loathing [MV]

Marina and The Diamonds’ second album Electra Heart aims for a different direction than The Family Jewels. Marina’s second album deals with love, heartbreak, feminism, honesty and dishonesty as well as tackling American archetypes such as Madonna, Paris Hilton, Marilyn Monroe and Betty Draper (Mad Men).

In The Family Jewels, Marina Diamanidis proved that she was a great singer and a talented songwriter that uses comedy effectively and with attitude. Electra Heart confirms this point once again, especially during tracks such as the energetic opening track Bubblegum Bitch, catchy yet comical Homewrecker, the melodramatic-suicidal Teen Idle and Starring Role, which tackles both love and feminism at the same time.

The production values are definitely better than The Family Jewels, given that it features collaborations from several record producers such as Dr. Luke, Diplo, Stargate and returning collaborators Greg Kurstin and Liam Howe, the latter being heavily important on The Family Jewels.

However, my biggest issue with Electra Heart is that it is an electropop/synthpop album. I’m not too fond of electropop in general, but I did like a few songs from that genre — Lily Allen’s Fuck You [MV] and Julian Casablancas’ 11th Dimension [MV] are good examples. In Electra Heart, the electropop genre manages to overshadow the attitude and honestly that her lyrics present, almost resembling Katy Perry in sound and giving the album quite the repetititve (and uneven) feel at times.

It might take a while to adjust to the electropop sound in Electra Heart, but the album is still at least worth a listen once (or maybe twice) because Marina explores characters and archetypes with her lyricism in a very interesting way. Let’s hope for her third album turning out better than this.

Best tracks: Lies, Homewrecker and Teen Idle

Rating: ★★★½☆ 

Preview on Xiami.com | Like it? Buy the album on Amazon or iTunes

Rodrigo

YAM Magazine contributor, has a B. Sc. degree in Science/Pharmacy and is a very lazy person.

3 Responses

  1. amy says:

    Agree with this review xD I think this album is a little over-produced, and I prefer The Family Jewels to this one… even if Bubblegum Bitch is super fun. I might give this a few more listens, but I’m thinking one of these tracks is going to make it to my Top50 songs of this year.

  1. August 12, 2013

    […] Heart, the latest single from Marina and the Diamonds, which happens to share the same title as her second album, but it is somehow not part of said album at all, technically […]

  2. October 13, 2013

    […] (if you’re wondering about 2011 and 2012, that goes to The Black Keys – El Camino and Marina and the Diamonds – Electra Heart, respectively) instead of putting the masterful Up The Bracket in it, that was my way of […]

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