#i just have to listen to the family jewels and electra heart in these moments

[cliffburton]

fill the void up with celluloid take a picture i'm with the boys get what i want cus i ask for it not bc i'm rly that deserving of it

#marina #incantations #i just have to listen to the family jewels and electra heart in these moments

[taste-in-music]

It’s been four years, so let’s talk about LOVE + FEAR!

MARINA dropped the diamonds and came back swinging with her fourth studio album, a two part experience built around the concept that all positive emotions stem from LOVE and all negative emotions stem from FEAR. Up until this point, I’ve heard the LOVE side of the album, but I thought that I would give my thoughts on each song on the record, as well as my overall consensus. There are sixteen songs, so sit back, grab a snack, listen along to the album with me if you want, and let’s dive right in. 

LOVE

Handmade Heaven

I 👀 ENVY 😑 THE BIRDS 🦅, HIGH UP IN THE 🌲 TREES 😊

I’ve talked before about how much I love this song, so I’ll try not to say to much 

the production on this song is so lush, with the trilling flutes, pianos, gently tapping cymbals, and explosion at the chorus. this song just feels so grand and larger than life. we stan this production

this is definitely one of the strongest tracks on the album, if not the strongest

Superstar

I’m not going to lie, this isn’t one of my favorite tracks. I think the lyrics are kind of flat (despite this song having four writers,) and the production just doesn’t do that much for me

however, I do like the sparkly and fun drop, and, as always, MARINA’s vocals

Orange Trees

I’m just in love with those “🍊𝓸𝕆𝖔๏ⓞ𝓸𝕆𝖔๏range 𝓸𝕆𝖔๏ⓞ𝓸𝕆𝖔๏range🍊” riffs

this is definitely a bop. it makes me want to sprawl out on a beach so damn badly

I can see this song getting giant this summer. I hope it does, it’s the kind of song we need on the radio right now

this song makes me want to jet set to Greece

Baby ft. Clean Bandit & Luis Fonsi

you know what? some people I’ve seen in the MARINA fandom don’t like this song because they think it’s “basic” or “too mainstream,” but I don’t mind it at all

Clean Bandit’s production is sharp as hell here, the Latin influences like the guitar and beat in the instrumental help it stand out from the rest of MARINA’s discography and also make me want to dance. I don’t mind Fonsi’s presence either, I think he and MARINA have pretty good vocal chemistry

especially that chrous! say it doesn’t slap, I dare you

I can understand the critique that this song doesn’t really fit in the with the flow of the album, I don’t mind its presence here. if anything, it’s a refreshing switch up 

Enjoy Your Life

this does work as a song to listen to if you just need to feel better

I don’t know if this was intentional, but the way the lyrics are written kind of make it seem like the song’s message is to just sit back and enjoy your life despite anything wrong that might be going on. I get what this is trying to communicate, but you don’t necessarily have to “sit back and enjoy your problems” and “might as well accept” your lot if you’re unhappy. you just have to be proactive and work to fix whatever it is you’re unhappy with. I don’t believe MARINA is saying that you should be passive and just let anything happen to you, I just think this song would hit a little harder if it mentioned how you can go about improving and enjoying your life 

True

the chorus of this song low key goes hard as fuck, it’s so damn catchy

nothing much else to say about this song

To Be Human

the imagery in these lyrics really elevate this song. little details like the “gold leaf” on the buildings, “Lenin's body lying dead" in the Red Square, and the village “where [her] father’s from” are just beautiful.

more great lines! “the missiles and the bombs sound like symphonies gone wrong,” “and if there is a god, they will know why it’s so hard to be human”

“Savages” may have been MARINA roasting humanity, but this song is her appreciating it. while this song might not have quite the biting, poetic wit of “Savages,” it still has some of the sharpest writing on this album

End Of The Earth

that vocal processing at the start of the song might only last a handful of seconds, but I really like it

also, those dark synths are great

this song has a more entrancing atmosphere, and works as an interesting transition track from LOVE to FEAR

FEAR

Believe In Love

the synthy bassline at the start of this song is giving me major Grimes vibes

the restrained and almost whispered vocal delivery is a nice change of pace form the LOVE portion of the album, but some of the vocal processing messes with MARINA’s rich tone and it’s kind of annoying. just let her sing, she has a great voice!

I love how the lyrics of the songs link together the themes of love and fear, like the final line in the chorus: “losing you is what I'm afraid of, I need to believe in love” 

Life Is Strange

yesss, violins! and tambourine?

we’re dipping back into those sweeping themes of humanity and human nature, like on To Be Human and Savages

“is it ever gonna be enough to love another and be loved?” IS THAT A MOWGLI’S ROAD REFERENCE I HEAR??! cuckoo bitches! (I guess she really does envy the birds high up in the trees)

“seems like everybody's having the best time of their lives but we don't know what's going on at any given time” is a big fat schmood

still, I wish the lyrics went more in depth here, like there were more specific details or music on why things are the way that they are

You

I’m sensing another tropical beat here

this is a real treat if you’re listening with headphones. that vocal warping on the “you”s in the background are fun

I wish that this drop had more oomph to it. it feels kind of like an anti-climax

the flowing feel of this song is nice. if I had one word to describe this song it would be “nice.” it’s not too over the top or surprising but I don’t hate it either

Karma

some more Latin-y guitars like the ones on Baby, as well as some hi-hats? I’m excited to see how this song builds

this song is giving me flashbacks to The Family Jewels with the “oh my god” and Electra Heart with the “heartbreaker” name drop. 

something about those “doubt doubt doubts” remind me of the DJ Snake remix of “You Know You Like It” by AlunaGeorge. on that note, what the heck ever happened to AlunaGeorge?

this song is very melodically satisfying, especially the chorus, but I still can’t help but feel like this song is missing something. maybe harder-hitting percussion? some bass? I can’t quite put my finger on it

I still like that there’s some more sass on this track, with the vocal delivery and in the lyrics

Emotional Machine

everyone’s been shitting their pants over this song, so I’m excited to hear it for the first time

that “I’m a ,-*'^'~*-.,_,.-*~ må¢hᵢïᶦᶦᶦᶦᶦᶦᶦᶦiᵢñê,-*'^'~*-.,_,.-*~ ” really threw me for a loop and it’s fucking great there’s that MARINA weirdness I know and love!

Too Afraid

I don’t really have anything to say about this song. it’s fine, but there isn’t anything that special about it

the lyrics are kind of relatable, at least. with the idea of being afraid to open up in a relationship and be vulnerable

No More Suckers

everyone has also been shitting their pants over this song, but in a less enthusiastic way than with “Emotional Machine.” let’s pray this is an underrated bop

I like those peppering piano notes in the background, it’s very summery and fun

the instrumental reminds me of “Cheap Thrills” by Sia a little bit?

“you eat all of my food” and “you mess up all my towels” made me laugh out loud. are these suckers just really bad house guests? it kind of plunges so far into the valley of ridiculous that it rebounds back to being great

at least there’s a bit more sass and personality on this track

I don’t see why people dislike this. it’s about on par with the other songs on the album so far, at least for me

Soft To Be Strong

her vocals on this track are so lovely and delicate

“I choose to love you without fear, no shame in being sincere” is a really good lyric, I appreciate its sentiment 

the way the production builds up near the end allows the song to gain more momentum, especially with those echoing background vocals and prominent drums. there’s some of that oomph I was looking for 

My Thoughts Summarized: I’m all for artists evolving with their sound. Of course somebody who has been in the game as song as MARINA is going to sound different now then when she did back in 2010 with The Family Jewels when she was in her early twenties, and she has every right in the world to make the music that she wants to and that makes her happy. But something about a majority of the songs on this album don’t invoke the enthusiasm that I have for songs of hers on other albums. One of the qualities of MARINA’s that I especially admire is her strong lyricism, and the lyrics on some of these songs just fell a little flat for me, not going into detail or being clever with their wordplay. Along with that, the production on all the songs never really goes there, if you know what I mean. I was expecting a little bit more experimentation or change-ups in sound as the album progressed, and I didn’t really get that. As always, MARINA’s vocals are great throughout the entirety of the album. I just love how complex and unique her voice is, and I’m convinced she could sing “Happy Birthday” and have it sound amazing. To me, the best tracks are Handmade Heaven and To Be Human, which showcase strong writing and grander-scale production.

slay goddess aslhldghsdklgda 

Overall, LOVE + FEAR is a pretty standard pop album. It’s not my personal favorite in MARINA’s discography, but there are some standout tracks and moments that will stick with you after every listen. What did you think of LOVE + FEAR? Agree or disagree? Comment or reblog with your thoughts, I’m excited to hear what you think.

#music #album review #MARINA #LOVE + FEAR #taste in music

[blackhyena]

tagged by @simonjpg thanks babe this looks really fun!

rules: list 10 artists you like before answering these questions

bat for lashes

florence & the machine

kasabian

grimes

lana del rey

the last shadow puppets

marina and the diamonds

susanne sundfor

st vincent

wolf alice

what was the first song you heard by 6? oooooo fuck its really hard to say when i first got into them/when they entered my life. i think i first listened to the i want you (shes so heavy) or maybe the S.O.S cover and was just very into it and decided to find out more

what is your favourite song by 8? urghhh theyre all so good! i mean lilith is absolutely phenomenal so probably that but theres so many that i love

what kind of impact has 1 left on your life? like......nobody else that i know is into bat for lashes and if they are its never as much as i love her. which is a shame cause shes amazing and deserves to be way more popular. so for me its a very personal thing and some of her latest album was really like, part of a healing process for me at a difficult time and its all immensely emotionally powerful for me. natasha khan im free on thursday if you want to hang out pleasse call me i love you

what are your favourite lyrics by 5? uuhhhh probably from This Is What Makes Us Girls:

There she was my new best friend High heels in her hands, swayin' in the wind While she starts to cry, mascara runnin' down her little Bambi eyes: "Lana, how I hate those guys."

honorable mention goes to the spoken word bit from Lolita which makes me lose my god Damn mind

how many times have you seen 4 live? i havent seen her yet :((((((( big sad

what is your favourite song by 7? uhhh i mean electra heart is a masterpiece but i have so much nostalgia for The Family Jewels. I used to listen to The Outsider when i was younger and think I was really edgy but it still has a really big place in my heart so maybe that?

is there any song by 3 that makes you sad? GOODBYE KISS ;___;

what is your favourite song by 9? ooooooo at the moment i’m really into like......All of the new album but particularly Smoking Section

how did you first get into 2? i remember seeing the video for Raise It Up and thinking it was weird but liking it and then reading an article about her in Q magazine. usually i hate an artist i later get into irrationally before I change my mind for good, but I didn’t really do that with her, I thought she was cool as fuck from day one

how did you get into 10? Iheard She on xfm before they’d released their first album and recognised the name from Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber which I’d read earlier that year I think, and and thought hey!!!! thats something I’m into!! so I was kinda instantly into them, and ive loved them ever since basically

i shall tag uhhh @bisexualaudreyhorne @icanstillfeelyou @ceolfriths @beau--brummell @nickcavelesbian @bubblegmhrt @oranges-of-symmetry @maisonderriere @sebastianmicgaylis

#text post

[permetscore]

sasuke uchiha as marina and the diamonds lyrics

yes really

ok so im only doing her middle two albums bc those r the only ones ive listened to. feel free to add on froot & mermaid vs. sailor lyrics if u want, i cant stop u

anyway lets start w the family jewels album

are you satisfied - ok this whole fucking song could b listed but we dont have time for that so heres some highlights

It's not my problem if you don't see what I see And I do not give a damn if you don't believe My problem, it's my problem That I never am happy It's my problem, it's my problem On how fast I will succeed

...

Cause it's my problem If I wanna pack up and run away It's my business if I feel the need to Smoke and drink and sway It's my problem, it's my problem If I feel the need to hide And it's my problem if I have no friends And feel I want to die

shampain - ok this one relies on headcanoning sasuke as struggling w substance abuse but i dont think thats a stretch. also

Coz I remember, the way, the way, the way It ended the day, the day, the day, the day That I walked away, away, away, away

i am not a robot - this one seems more abt sasuke than sung by sasuke

It's okay to say you've got a weak spot You don't always have to be on top Better to be hated than loved, loved, loved for what you're not You're vulnerable, you're vulnerable You are not a robot You're lovable, so lovable But you're just troubled

...

You've been hanging with the unloved kids Who you never really liked and you never trusted But you are so magnetic, you pick up all the pins Never committing to anything

mowgli’s road - aw dude this whole song as sasuke makes me sad

I have been told (I have been told) That I must take the unforsaken road (forsaken road) There's a fork in the road I'll do as I am told And I don't know, don't know, don't know, don't know Who-oo-oo-oo-ooo I want to be

obsessions - ok this ones a stretch at points but it fits my hc sasuke so well wrt failed romantic shit. but these lines on their own fit close enough to canon imo

We've got obsessions I wanna erase every nasty thought that bugs me every day of every week We've got obsessions You never told me what it was that made you strong and what it was that made you weak

the outsider

Just because you know my name Doesn't mean you know my game

oh no! - the moment we’ve all been waiting for. tbh most of this song applies kjdfghkjdfh

Don't do love, don't do friends I'm only after success Don't need a relationship I'll never soften my grip

...

One track mind, one track heart If I fail, I'll fall apart

...

I'm gonna live, I'm gonna fly I'm gonna fail, gonna die, die, die, die

rootless - ok this ones really goddamn sad actually and rly fits w his feelings of isolation / distance from any actual bonds

Running with my roots pulled up Caught me cold so they could cut What there was left of love

numb - like this whole song honestly

I feel numb most of the time The lower I get the higher I'll climb And I will wonder why I got dark only to shine Looking for the golden light Oh, it's a reasonable sacrifice Burn, burn, burn bright Forgo family, forgo friends It's how it started, how it ends I can't open up and cry 'Cause I've been silent all my life

...

Oh, I get dark oh and I'm in hell I need a friend, oh but I can't yell Yeah, I'm no good, no good to anyone 'Cause all I care about is being number one

guilty - OH NO IM SAD

I was just a kid, That you could not forgive, Because it's harder. I was just a kid, And all I really wanted, Was my father.

...

Spent years singing to forget, (to forget). Spent years singing, "no regret". Then suddenly it all becomes clear, I've been sorry all these years.

the family jewels - ok this one i feel like applies best if his family were alive and w his like, complicated family feelings. but it could still work 

I can't break the cycle Am I just a fool? Falling down like dominos Hit by family jewels

OKAY thats it for that album. now for electra heart. which a lot still fits but i think electra heart has so much to specifically w misogyny and mental illness as it applies to women that it wont fit quite as neatly usually. anyway

bubblegum bitch - this one doesnt apply much dfkjd

Oh, dear diary, I met a boy. He made my dull heart Light up with joy. Oh, dear diary, we fell apart.

homewrecker - ok i did not expect this to fit but

When everything is life and death You may feel like there's nothing left Instead of love and trust and laughter What you get is happy never after But deep down all you want is love The pure kind we all dream of But we cannot escape the past So you and I will never last

state of dreaming - tfw u plan on dying by 17 and everything is pre-planned out

If only you knew my dear, How I live my life in fear If only you knew my dear, How I know my time is near

power and control - this was a stretch but

We give and take a little more, ‘Cause all my life I’ve been controlled, You can’t have peace without a war, Without a war, without a war.

living dead - oh man

I'm living dead, dead, dead, dead Only alive-live-live-live When I pretend-tend-tend-tend That I have died, died, died, died, died, died I haven't lived life I haven't lived love Just bird's eye view From the sky above

teen idle - the other moment we’ve all been waiting for. tbh i rly do think this would apply more if he were a girl but anyway

I wanna stay inside all day I want the world to go away I want blood, guts and chocolate cake I wanna be a real fake

...

I wanna drink until I ache I wanna make a big mistake I want blood, guts and angel cake I’m gonna puke it anyway

...

I wish I wasn’t such a narcissist I wish I didn’t really kiss The mirror when I’m on my own Oh, God! I’m gonna die alone Adolescence didn’t make sense A little loss of innocence The ugly years of being a fool Ain’t youth meant to be beautiful?

valley of the dolls

Born with a void, hard to destroy with love or hope Built with a heart, broken from the start And now I die slow

fear and loathing - ok this one is SO GOOD as a sasu/naru song LISTEN

I live my life in bitterness And fill my heart with emptiness And now I see, I see it for the first time, There is no crime in being kind Not everyone is out to screw you over. Maybe, oh just maybe they just wanna get to know ya. Now the time is here, Baby you don't have to live your life in fear And the sky is clear, is clear of fear Don't wanna live in fear and loathing

#.txt #my magnum opus

[boywonder-reviews-blog]

‘Love is all that I fear’: Marina and the Diamonds - ‘Electra Heart’ review.

Diamandis’ second studio album tries to bring an old concept –the corrupted, Hollywood diva wannabe- to new life, balancing the irony with the heartfelt, the ‘fake’ with the ‘real’, but getting a bit lost in her many explanations. 

When first heard, Marina and the Diamonds’ second album might come as a ‘shocker’, or at least not the evolution one might expect coming from her debut album, The Family Jewels (2010). Her first album was a compound of self-written songs, characterised by an aesthetic that some have described as ‘mature’ and ‘self-conscious’, traits that usually describe second albums, where the singer’s innocence is lost after seeing how people reacted to their first work. For her second record, Marina gets back some of this ‘innocent’ feeling that was never present in her first album, and this is showcased in some of her new songs, but at the same time she keeps a ‘ruthless bitch’ façade that characterises the whole album. Electra Heart (2012) is the name of her new work, but also the name of the ‘persona’ that she presents the album with. As explained by her in an interview for Popjustice, Electra Heart is “kind of basically a vehicle to portray part of the American dream, with elements of Greek tragedy […] all coming out through the visuals”; which basically means she is using her Electra Heart persona as a means to an end, presenting songs that some might catalogue as generic pop music, but with a clever twist that separates the songs from other pop songs, and separates her from others. The way she presents these songs is in a visual way, through videos that follow up the story of Electra Heart, from her symbolic birth when Marina cuts her hair (in ‘Part 1: Fear & Loathing’, 2011) to her death, when Marina smudges the painted heart on her left cheek that characterises Electra Heart at the end of ‘Part 11: Electra Heart’ (2013). 

 In her album, Marina presents us with an avatar that has multiple traits to her personality; she calls this traits ‘the archetypes’, which she bases off of typical women roles from old films and old television shows from the 50s-60s-70s, and so we find the ‘housewife’, the ‘beauty queen’, the ‘homewrecker’ and the ‘idle teen’, archetypes that are explored in every song of the album. This was hinted already in the song ‘Fear & Loathing’, which she released as the first part of her story, in the line “got different people inside my head/I wonder which one that they like best”, but then it was explained in the video ‘Part 3: The Archetypes’, where a bunch of computer-altered voices describe Electra Heart as “a study in identity and illusion/an ode to Cindy/a living film/a real fake”. This ‘ode to Cindy’ that she presents is viewed by some as a reference to Cindy Sherman, an American photographer who rose to fame in the 80s for her feminist self-portraits where she also posed as various female archetypes. This feminist approach is relevant to the concept of the album too because Marina declares herself a feminist, so she keeps in her lyrics and her videos a feminist point of view that helps present all of these different personas. The ‘ode to Cindy’ line may also refer to the poem by the same name, written by Tim Labbe, in which the author tells the sad story of a girl named Cindy who moves to Texas in dreams of becoming a model and meets her terrible fate.

The most annoying thing about Electra Heart is, perhaps, the concept in itself, and how twisted and complicated it is to explain, even to Marina herself. In the six months that she began to promote her album, she did several interviews (like the one for Popjustice quoted before, or this other one for Interview Magazine) that seemed to get more and more confusing, as she seemed to get lost in her own concept. Everything became even more confusing and complicated as 2012 brought to light another amazing artist, Lana del Rey, who, as a critique for Pitchfork remark, “came along and executed precisely what Marina was aiming for, hardly having to open her much-discussed mouth in order to explain herself while Marina tied herself in conceptual knots”: Marina was overcomplicating her whole new concept while also looking like someone else’s past identity (Lana del Rey when she identified as Lana del Ray/Lizzie Grant). Some critics even received the whole ‘Electra Heart’ concept as a market strategy to just mask the fact that she’s putting out a mainstream record (Alexis Petridis wrote exactly that in his critique of Electra Heart for The Guardian). I do think Marina created the character and recycled the old concept of the “corrupted Hollywood diva” by giving it a bit of her own personal style not just for the sales, but because the material that she was writing and producing with people that are really big in the music industry, like Diplo, required it: every song was just so different to what she had written before that she needed a concept to back everything up in order to be logical for her fans and the industry in general. Funny enough, she ended up writing and producing with Dr. Luke, famous for raping and abusing Ke$ha, another pop singer, and being supported by his record label, Sony Music Entertainment, in detriment of the singer – how ironic is that a declared feminist like Marina would work with a producer like that one? But then again, was it really her choice, or was she forced by her record label to work with him in order to sell more albums?

Another rather confusing move made by Marina is the fact that she premiered her song ‘Radioactive’ as part of her album visuals (‘Part 2: Radioactive’). This song was a high-energy and powerful song in which she accepts her final fate and renews her faith in her superior self against her inferior lover/ex-lover. Her vocals shine through since the beginning of the song where she sings “Lying on a fake beach/you’ll never get a tan”. The confusing part: she released the song before she even released her album, leading everyone to believe that it was going to be released as her first new single, but then she released ‘Primadonna’ as her first single and then proceeded to release her album without ‘Radioactive’ in it. The song was relegated to the special deluxe re-edition of Electra Heart, together with other really good songs like ‘Sex Yeah’ (an upbeat song about women empowerment through sex, history and society), ‘Lonely Hearts Club’ (a really simple and somehow cynical song about love and being single) and ‘Buy The Stars’ (a heartfelt ballad about how she cannot be owned). So I find myself asking, where is the logic in that move?

But anyway, in Electra Heart, as much as in every album ever released, we find songs that work particularly well within the context of the album, and other songs that just don’t work specially well or that seem to be there just to “fill the album up” because they don’t seem to tell something new or to add to the story. Funny enough, those “filler songs” are mostly the ones co-produced with the big names in the industry: from ‘Living Dead’, which sounds like the backing song and the sombre tone of the lyrics do not match (because singing “I am living dead” and singing about depression just doesn’t really seem to match with a high energy backing track and a loud bass) to ‘Homewrecker’, a track that could be described as plain weird, where Marina does a kind of spoken word piece about being what could be described as a “side hoe” and then bursts into really high vocals for the chorus when she says “they call me Homewrecker”, just to then deliver the most ironic sentences of the song (“I guess you could say that my life is a mess/but I’m still looking pretty in this dress/I’m the image of deception”) and admit in the last bridge that “deep down all you (she) want(s) is love/the pure kind we all dream of”: plain confusing and weird, somehow effective but not quite there. Special mention to ‘Primadonna’, which as I mentioned before was the first single of the album, and it was composed by Marina and the before mentioned Dr. Luke: ‘Primadonna’ works as a pop song with maybe a more ironic and deep message that what one understands at first listen, and it adds to the story of Electra Heart, being centred around the ‘Beauty Queen’ character, but it still feels like just a very elaborated but fairly empty pop song.

However, there are a few really brilliant moments that one can find in the album. These are usually the ones where Marina was the only songwriter involved in the creation of the song, and Liam Howe was the only producer. Howe has a history with Diamandis, because he also produced Marina’s first record The Family Jewels, so it feels as if they both have already some “professional chemistry”, which makes recording songs easier, and perhaps that is part of why their songs are the best in the record. In these few songs, the production seems to be more relaxed and Marina’s voice just seems to shine over not too overcomplicated instrumentals with more of a ‘laid back’ feeling to them. An example of this is the track ‘Fear & Loathing’, which would eventually become the first part of the story of ‘Electra Heart’, being released before the album. In the song, Marina’s voice really shines through, especially when she hits the higher notes with that ethereal voice that sometimes characterises her, and she does this while singing about how she has been living “a lot of different lives” and she has “been different people many times” and she is tired of doing that and hating herself, so she decides to stop loathing herself that much and start living. In this track we also find in the lyrics and the way she sings them some of that ‘innocent feeling’ and some vulnerability that wasn’t present in Marina’s first album, like when she sings “Now I see, I see it for the first time/there is no crime in being kind/not everyone is out to screw you over/maybe, yeah just maybe/they just wanna get to know you”. In the line that says “I’m done with trynna have it all/and ending up with not much at all”, she also showcases how vulnerable she felt after her first record was considered pretty much a sales failure.

Other shining moments in the album include the songs ‘Teen Idle’ and ‘The State of Dreaming’. In ‘Teen Idle’, Marina showcases her songwriting skills with lyrics that are as ironic and twisted as it gets but also truthful in some ways. In the chorus she sings about being a “teen idle”, a “prom queen fighting for the title […] feeling super suicidal”. She sings about “the wasted years, the wasted youth/the pretty lies, the ugly truth” referring to puberty and that age where many teenagers feel lost and have ‘angsty’ feelings, and most of them live in a lie with themselves, trying to be fake in order to appeal to more people. The lyrics are full of contradictions within verses, like when she sings “I wanna be a virgin pure/a 21st century whore” or when she sings “I want blood, guts and angel cake/I’m gonna puke it anyway” as a reference to suffering bulimia. There is also a feeling of regret present during the whole song, which becomes clear when Marina sings “I wish I wasn’t such a narcissist […]” and then finishes those verses with the phrase “oh God, I’m gonna die alone”, which pretty much encapsulates that ‘teen angst aesthetic’ that the song wants to showcase, because the fear of not fitting in with society and not finding anyone to love and dying alone is real for many teenagers. The other highlight, ‘The State of Dreaming’, is a complete opposite to ‘Teen Idle’: where the song just analysed is twisted and borders in nasty, ‘The State of Dreaming’ plays with the opposite of this and showcases the character of a dreamer that wants to be happy and isolates herself in her own dreamland, told in a happy, kind of sweet and even ‘campy’ way (with some cheesy bells ringing in the instrumental track). Again, we find that recurring image of the ‘innocent’ character but still driven by ambition (she sings “I lived my life inside a dream/only waking when I’m sleep/I would sell my sorry soul/if I could have it all”). Marina’s vocals shine through with melodies that move between her higher register and sometimes also her lower.

Overall, Electra Heart works as a pop album because, despite the confusion regarding the character/alter ego/personification of the concept, despite the songs that do not work or are just plain confusing and despite the fact that it can be seen as just a commercial album dressed as a critique to commercial music in order to sell even more, Electra Heart still counts with brilliant moments of sincerity under all the ‘fakeness’ of Electra, and with songs that make it shine, and it also counts with Marina’s vocals, sometimes electrifying but sometimes ethereal, which makes her one hell of a singer. Electra Heart is an important album in Marina’s career because it worked as expected and it made her more famous, opening the doors for a whole new public for her, giving her the opportunity to give better and bigger shows and the opportunity to grow. Despite of its commercial and ‘simple pop’ edge, the album works as a sophomore album, and it is also important because thanks to Electra Heart Diamandis grew, and when she ‘killed’ her character, Marina gave us (her fans) what is her ‘masterpiece’, her best album yet: FROOT, her most personal record yet, totally written and co-produced by her. And funny enough, even herself looks down at Electra Heart in one of her new songs and sings “yeah, I know, but I need the gold”, referring to the fact that she needed the money and needed the sales, so she consciously created Electra Heart, a generic pop album, as a ways to be better known and to sell more.