MARINA (and The Diamonds)

[bloodsucker 145]

happy birthday electra heart <3

[HEARTCORE 18,971]

 

Said the same thing yesterday to @@wraith and @@electra

 

With Lana's "bad" songs, you can tell they have been written by her and it's her unique sound and style. They feel authentic.

Most of LOVE + FEAR could have been released by... someone like Dua Lipa. You can't feel Marina's touch in (probably more than) half of the album.

 

Starting with The Family Jewels, she always had an idea and desire to write about something specific. She always knew what she wanted to do that, of course not 100%, she changed directions and came up with new ideas and discarded old ones as she continued with the writing but that's just the creative process. It doesn't matter that how many producers and co-writers were on Electra Heart, she had the bulk of it down and needed people to fill the gaps. With TFJ and especially EH there were a lot more people but with FROOT she only had the help of one producer to help her out.

 

With this album, she definitely had a creative block. She wrote some songs in 2016 and 2017 but she did not go in to this process having an idea of what she wanted to do. She was drained from all the touring. She didn't even know if she wanted to make an album. She probably started to feel a little pressure in 2018 to do a record (because you know, fans and contract obligations) but she was still confused about what to do. That's when she ended up taking a trip to Sweden, working with Clean Bandit again, working with BROODS. She just had fun writing camps with musicians who ended up doing the bulk of the album for her, instead of filling the gaps. She is a musician too, she wrote and came up with melodies as much as they did but she did not go into that studio with "I want to do THIS, help me do it" like she did with her previous albums. Her approach was more like "Uhm I have this thing but idk what do you guys have/think" and that's why the album sounds like something that could be sung by any UK or Scandinavian pop artist. She took every sound, every melody, every production detail without thinking twice "is this authentically me? is this what I want to make and release?". She took whatever sounded at least decent, fresh and maybe 'radio/chart fit'. She wanted to finish an album as quickly as possible after making only a handful of songs before 2018. She made 20+ songs and picked what she thought was the best and slapped some weak idea on it... and here we are. That's why I also have issues with some of the production changes and songs that didn't make the album. The outtakes are more authentically her than some of the tracks on the album.

 

So yeah I'm rambling on a lot, it's up to you to decide if this is a good or bad album. For me, is it a good pop record that has delicious production and fun vibes, definitely yes. But is it an authentic MARINA album? Definitely not compared to her previous work. Is this gonna take away from my listening experience? Not really. Am I disappointed? Just a little bit, but I'll survive and see what her next record offers. If the next one is the same then that means she's just gonna serve up this now and I'll enjoy it for what it is.

Completely agree. Please Don’t Call Me & Emotional Machine feel very authentically Marina, so it figures that those were the ones from earlier on. She has lost her identity with this record.

[Downtown Baby Doll 5,310]

Completely agree. Please Don’t Call Me & Emotional Machine feel very authentically Marina, so it figures that those were the ones from earlier on. She has lost her identity with this record.

omg Electra Heart pt. II is coming

 

In all seriousness though, a loss of identity seems to be one of the very few consistent subjects throughout L+F, in my opinion. When she was taking a hiatus from music, she was exploring different hobbies and experiences to try and discover who she was outside of being a musician. I still get that vibe from her through the lyrics found throughout L+F. I feel like she's a lot like Lana in the regard that she enjoys making and sharing music, but doesn't enjoy the life that comes with it as much anymore, like touring and fame. ("This life don't suit me anymore, the writing's on the wall/But in this handmade heaven, I come alive") But since she's spent such a huge part of her life so far making music and aiming for a level of stardom, when she wants to take a step back from that, she feels lost. Hence her returning to music with an okay/good, not great album.

 

Some of the songs feel very "Marina", like PDCM, Emotional Machine, HH, and To Be Human. But a majority of the other songs feel so uninspired to me. 

[111 36,680]

Completely agree. Please Don’t Call Me & Emotional Machine feel very authentically Marina, so it figures that those were the ones from earlier on. She has lost her identity with this record.

 

Made another comment about this on ATRL that I'd like to copy here while we are still on topic: 

 

The problem is not the content, it's the filter she's putting the songs through or rather the lack of. She made songs before that are positive, happy and about enjoying life AND still kept the Marina touch in them. Most of those songs would not be fit for any X pop singer, but the songs on this album are. The lyrical content is very abstract and general. Is she writing about her life? Sure. But the ideas that pour onto the paper remain like sentences composed together from a group of any people, opposed to being her specific life experiences. The lyrics are surface level, there's a lack of detail. 

 

Let's take Karma and Better Than That for example. She talks about a specific person or a type of people in both of the songs, saying they will get what's coming for them, they're bad people etc. Compare the way she wrote both of the songs. The verses and bridge for Better Than That are so detailed and specific. When I first got the demo of Karma, I had absolutely no idea it was about "men in power". She could have written something very powerful with that concept, yet she remained abstract and gave a generalized version that could have been written/sung by a teen pop artist.

 

To answer your question, yes they are both early tracks. 

[Off To The Races 2010 demo pls 19,335]

Made another comment about this on ATRL that I'd like to copy here while we are still on topic: 

 

The problem is not the content, it's the filter she's putting the songs through or rather the lack of. She made songs before that are positive, happy and about enjoying life AND still kept the Marina touch in them. Most of those songs would not be fit for any X pop singer, but the songs on this album are. The lyrical content is very abstract and general. Is she writing about her life? Sure. But the ideas that pour onto the paper remain like sentences composed together from a group of any people, opposed to being her specific life experiences. The lyrics are surface level, there's a lack of detail. 

 

Let's take Karma and Better Than That for example. She talks about a specific person or a type of people in both of the songs, saying they will get what's coming for them, they're bad people etc. Compare the way she wrote both of the songs. The verses and bridge for Better Than That are so detailed and specific. When I first got the demo of Karma, I had absolutely no idea it was about "men in power". She could have written something very powerful with that concept, yet she remained abstract and gave a generalized version that could have been written/sung by a teen pop artist.

 

To answer your question, yes they are both early tracks. 

How does the Karma demo sound like? 

[TheBoss 13,507]

The final chorus of Emotional Machine is so incredible, what a song, the live version doesn't make it any justice

[Shaw 583]

Hello gays. I’m going to fly over from Northern Ireland to Manchester to see Marina on the 10th and I was wondering if anyone else was going too that lives in Manchester? I don’t wanna book a hotel if I can hang on someone’s couch instead

[27968 57]

-

[Shaw 583]

So you prefer to put yourself in a complete stranger's house instead of booking a hotel room... 

Life is to be lived I just ride x

[Bettie Page 2,112]

hi girls and gays

anyone seeing Marina in Portland OR in Oct?

btw her new album is FIRE

[riina 1,055]

I love this whole album! I agree with Baby not fitting in, but otherwise I adore the whole package. I needed this positive energy. 

[baddisease 17,933]

The record is so good! Maybe almost as good as Electra Heart. I love it. Handmade Heaven, Superstar, Orange Trees, To Be Human, and Emotional Machine are my favorites but I'll probs have more when I listen to Fear more.

[DinahLee 6,193]

Listened to "FEAR"

It doest sound way more interesting than Love. Production and lyric wise. Still no Marina & The Diamonds  good, but I found it better than most of the LOVE songs.

[27968 57]

-

[andruexcx 639]

just wanted to say that i read an interview today where Marina commented on the lyricism of this record compared to the others: “The writing is more honest and direct. With Electra Heart, there was so much imagery stacked into those songs that it placed a barrier between the people listening. By comparison, Love + Fear doesn’t have the fantasy or illusory element that Electra Heart did.”

 

And i TOTALLY see and get that. and thats why i don’t understand why everyone is complaining about the lyrics. they’re from marina, and she did the whole phase of writing like EH and TFJ, quirky but GOOD, and Froot with more adulty-sounding lyrics but still Marina’s way of speaking her mind, but with this album its very clean lyrics. like they arent messy, they’re simple and to the point. And regardless of what people say, i feel like its fresh from Marina, we arent getting the same old thing with just a different sound of the album. i do think that every album shes made is my favorite just because each one brings something different to the table. and each one will always have a special place in my heart

[FrankNotOcean 1,146]

It feels kinda weird to put Please Don't Call Me after Soft to be Strong, where do you guys place it

[LonelyHeart 5,980]

It feels kinda weird to put Please Don't Call Me after Soft to be Strong, where do you guys place it

I honestly dont understand the hype around PDCM, is as commercial as the tracks on the album and theres nothing different from any other song formula from it. Theres Nothing Wrong With You outsold a thousand times. But since you are asking I would remove baby and replace with it lol (dont care if its love or a fear type of song )

[FrankNotOcean 1,146]

I honestly dont understand the hype around PDCM, is as commercial as the tracks on the album and theres nothing different from any other song formula from it. Theres Nothing Wrong With You outsold a thousand times. But since you are asking I would remove baby and replace with it lol (dont care if its love or a fear type of song )

I never said it was THAT song for me it's a pretty decent track I just don't like it to be in a complete different album in my library lol but thanks

[abombnd 6,440]

PDCM but without the prechoruses https://picosong.com/wEJte/

[Hundred Dollar Bill 21,804]

My top 3

 

End of the Earth

No More Suckers

Believe in Love

 

I think Love+Fear is a way better album than everyone has been saying. Marina didn’t really follow a theme or concept, but these are still lovely songs!