In 2010 when Marina and the Diamonds released her first album The Family Jewels I couldn't get enough of it. I loved her vocals that bounced, snapped and almost warbled their way through the songs. In terms of production it was polished and refined with synth featuring heavily, but it was also punctuated with strings, piano, brass, catchy guitar riffs and solid drums which gave her music quite a unique indie-pop sound. While it was close to mainstream, it was too left of centre to receive widespread radio play, but that was ok because she was a zany cartoon-themed lyrical feminist carving a niche for herself.
Fast forward a year and a bit of success later and it seems that any individuality she previously possessed has been sucked out of her. I blame this almost entirely on her collaboration with leading pop producers. Now admittedly I've only listened to two songs off her forthcoming album (entitled Electra Heart) but there has been quite a genre shift towards to what I can only describe as 'Rhianna'. The vocals, the production, everything about it stinks of Rhianna and it's hardly surprising given the fact that those behind this Rhianna-ing of Diamandis is no other than Norwegian production duo Stargate responsible for other Rhianna crimes such as 'Don't Stop the Music', 'S&M', 'Take a Bow', 'Rude Boy', 'Only Girl (In the World)' and 'What's My Name?'.
Ok, ok, maybe it's a bit harsh to refer to Rhianna's music as 'crimes' as they are amazing feats of production, are undoubtedly catchy and have topped the charts across the globe. But the overt sexual references and commodifying of her sexuality is both unnecessary and cheap, particularly when you consider that the vast majority of her fans are in their teens or younger. Whether these overtones will be applied to Marina's new album is unclear, although a demo leaked earlier this year was called 'Sex, Yeah' so my guess is that she may be towing the Rhianna-line.
If this is the case, I think it's kind of ironic because to quote Marina in 'Oh No'; 'I know exactly what I want and who I want to be...', maybe that's not quite the case anymore...
Here's her new single, Radioactive:
And the other one is Fear and Loathing which has a more Katy Perry sound to it. It's really not great:
Looks like the album will be out early 2012.
And from the good old real-Marina days, Oh No:
and I am not a Robot:
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