The Ultimate Marina and the Diamonds Playlist!
Marina and the Diamonds is one of my favorite female pop acts of late. She is refreshing because she does not come off as The Next BIG Thing nor as a sad wannabe. A very talented vocalist; having heavy yet billowy voice. She also has strikingly gorgeous features. She seems accessible too. I have seen in her in concert at Webster Hall, an inexpensive general admission NYC venue that does not house an overly large amount of people. This was a few years ago, but she has continued to have shows at this and similar venues. She released her sophomore album Electra Heart last year and her Lonely Hearts Club tour is going strong. She is attaining further recognition in the United States, via love from Perez Hilton and a recent cover of "How to Be A Heartbreaker" on Glee. Her songs are incredibly catchy yet are thoughtful and can often by quite dark. Soon she will probably release a WTF amazing record and become much, much bigger...
Given my love for Marina and my connection to the point of few of many modern creative women I would like to share an ultimate Marina play list as well as my reflections on the chosen songs. Please download on iTunes or check out on You Tube. Enjoy!
1) Primadonna. A soft introduction to the new sound and stronger conceptual leanings of her latest Electra Heart album. It the signature electro beats of the album, but also full of sweet acoustics and vocal washes. The chorus "Primadonna girl, all I ever wanted was the world, I can't help that I need it all, the Primadonna life the rise and fall" meant to come off as slightly sarcastic is actually a questionably valid point of view for young Gen Y / Millennial Females. Think the semi-privileged lives of the characters on the show Girls.
2) Shampain. An excellent play on words. I personally relate to this song as even only a few glasses of the bubbly stuff will having me flying, but will then quickly send me into near death stomach related illness. A more dance driven track off of Marina's first album The Family Jewels. While her debut was favorably more stripped down than Electra Heart, it also lacked its defining star and album making concepts. However "Shampain" is one of its stronger cuts, taking the excess of "Primadonna" to its dizzy inebriated heights while also showing Marina to be a thoughtful singer / songwriter.
3) Lies. Marina's unabashed Katy Perry move (more on that later). Sort of the morning after to the excesses of the first two songs on the playlist. Realizing someone you chose to love is just wrong. You know you deserve better but you can't let go. One of slower songs on Electra Heart and one of my favorites indeed.
4) I Am Not A Robot. Another stand out from Marina's debut album. A great song to help pick yourself up when losing yourself, living the fast life, or loving the wrong person run you down.
5) Homewrecker. This is a single girl's anthem. It carries all of the baggage of being just that "all you want is love, the pure kind we all dream of, but we can not escape the past, so you and I will never last." However, it is also perfectly strident as Marina sings in a glorious high register "And I don't belong to anyone, they call me homewrecker, homewrecker ah"
6) Girls. An upbeat look at the subject that predates Lena Dunham's navel gazing. Marina coos lines like "Look like a girl, but I think like a guy, not lady like to behave like a slime." and "You stick to your yogurts, I'll stick to my apple pies." I know I want this rebel girl to be my BFF...
7) Lonely Hearts Club. It is blasphemy has been relegated to a bonus track and is not part of the proper Electra Heart album... This is a forlorn yet upbeat pop track much lighter than her usual material of conflicted emotions and existential dilemmas. "Do you want to be with somebody like me?" This hesitant optimism regarding matters of love is universal.
8) Mowgli's Road. This song however was part of the proper Family Jewels album and may be one of her best known songs. It is full of Marina's typical lyrics pertaining to existential self doubt. There is also a Disney-esque theatricality to the track; from surreal visuals of the opening lyrics "Ten silver spoons coming after me" to the the witchy back up vocals toward the end.
9) Teen Idle. A later track on the Electra Heart album and probably one of her best. This is a mission statement for this album which tackles the topics superficiality, bulimia, teenage angst and loathing. She goes from feeling "super super super suicidal", "only to find I have come alive." This can be taken to mean freedom within death or possibly a metaphor for the painful and revelatory nature of growing up.
10) E.V.O.L. Sent as an downloadable file via email for her mailing list on Valentine's Day 2013, this song shows that Marina's creativity is still in full swing. I love the clever rhymes "candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.' The holler and stomp quality. "It only takes two lonely people to fuck love up and make it evil... L O V E E V O L." All I can say is that I feel ya girl.
11) Obsessions. This is a nice closing track. A mid tempo song that is soulful and relatable. "We've all got our obsessions... You never told me what it was that made you strong what it was that made you weak.." This is all Marina; cutting to the bone more than anything from her Electra Heart alter ago. It features her finest most subtle vocal performance; the vocal quiver of the lyric "skin is on firrre" Oooh Marina es caliente!!
<3