Marina & The Diamonds!

the album is kinda boring to me but i still love "i'm a ruin"

Wonder if it's her formula that Track 9 on every album is more or less the best & darkest track, Track 2 the monster pop single and Track 12 the big sad late-album epic

awesomely consistent album imo
out of the tracks i hadn't heard already, really enjoying 'gold' and 'blue'
'froot' into 'i'm a ruin' is just such a strong run

A lot of people have pointed out the Teen Idle/Forget link:
https://soundcloud.com/leakedpop2/marina-the-diamonds-forget-teen-idle

I guess I'm disappointed with this album overall. I was one of the excited nerds who pre-ordered for my froot of the month (I will commend her on this strategy, if she'd just put up a stream I probably wouldn't have bought the thing) and after getting my hopes raised real, real, high with "Happy" and "Froot" what finally arrived was an AOR break-up record with characteristically drab videos, not mad Nintendo futurepop and gospel vibe ballads. It's probably her most consistent album but I don't see myself returning to it like I do her debut and some tracks of Electra Heart.

Also, how do people like "Gold". Did you guys also like "Florida Kilos" or what

late to the show, but really digging this. the front-end is super strong.

froot - i know i'm probably not the first to say, but getting mad kate bush vibes on this
i'm a ruin - i'll be damned if that isn't one of the best choruses / toplines i've heard all year, and it doesn't even need lyrics. just the yeayyeahs uh-huh. so good
blue - catchy as heck. hot damn when the chorus comes in that 2nd time. so delicious with the 'GIMMEs'

actually got kate bush vibes from i'm a ruin! but yeh i agree, this album is super good

Yeah, I'm still playing this a lot. Brilliant album.

Blue and I'm a Ruin should have both been huge hits by now.

very late to the show.

really like the drums on this album - esp on Forget but also on other tracks.

ONE OF US

new song just released with clean bandit, way to conflict an imago.

she's dead to me

This isn't terrible.

Also, Róisín Murphy did a lot of dayplayer work like this before coming back with some super strong work of her own, so we'll see.

she's dating one of clean bandit iirc

and yeah I think this song is kinda old also? Like wasn't it being performed live ~2 years ago?

She's officially dropped "And The Diamonds" from the name, and I'm feeling a type of way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTez3e69Srk

It's a nice song. Is it a nice Marina song? I'm unsure yet. It has no edges.

I enjoyed the verses more than the chorus which seems a bit uneventful. It is beautifully produced. Could well grow on me like most of the last album did.

This is great! But she sings the title too much. That's the only flaw

haha I tend to hate that in songs

charming little track

The album is called Love & Fear and it's split into two 8-song halves. Fair enough. A sixteen song album will undoubtedly be too much album, especially when one of the tracks on "Love" is that fucking Clean Bandit song which is literal padding.

lol I didn't even bother reviving the thread for this last song, but here's the next one. Every one is lamer than the last.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYKaBHbTuvQ

I was really looking forward to this album after how much I loved Froot but these songs aren't really doing it for me at all. She sounds so bored.

iirc she went to university after the Froot tour ended and now she's in her mature period, but it really sounds like she's just attempting to get on the radio.

So, she just released the first half of the album (Love) a few weeks early. It's really not very good at all. So sad to hear her phoning it in over these generic songs.

Yeah, I can't even be bothered to listen to it based on what I've heard so far. If someone discovers a really good song, let me know.

Now Fear is out as well, I really can't remember the last time an artist lost just about everything that made them interesting in such a drastic way. I mean, that CHVRCHES album last year was a big step down from the previous one, but I never liked them as much as I liked Marina during the Froot era. That was such a strong album full of her character and great distinctive songwriting. Love & Fear has none of that. Just an endless run of bland trend-chasing mid tempo Spotify pop. Some really shocking lyrics too. She has absolutely nothing to say. So depressing that she's been talking about how this album is supposed to be close to the real her. In that way it's her Britney Jean!

it's still kinda wild to me that she went to university to study psychology in between album cycles and she came out of it with a song where the hook is "sit back and enjoy your problems, you don't always have to solve them, 'cause your worst days, they are over, so enjoy your life"

like..."ignore your problems, and just be happy!" seems like such bad advice particularly from someone so allegedly enlightened!

A psychology degree isn't about how to solve your happiness problems
It doesn't help you 'read minds' either :)

"I really can't remember the last time an artist lost just about everything that made them interesting"

Not that it was interesting to start with, but this is as drastic a shift as when Michael Bolton went from aping KISS to making adult contemporary gloop. Worked well for his bottom line, though, so we'll see if she's on to something.

this is an awfully long album considering how fucking boring it is.

"orange trees" is on repeat as hold music for a clothes retailer and it is very boring
I thought it sounded like Marina but didn't really believe something of hers would be so very dull

New single!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obxFWNeGDOg

an improvement, at least

It's a bit on the nose but sounds like a return to form to me

yeah i tuned out the lyrics. the music is a step up from whatever nonsense she was putting out last time

Read a brief interview with her that says she's once again doing what she wants rather than being handled by a team. That last album sounded focus grouped into the ground, and she knows it.

On board with the overall sentiment here. I'm not sold on the song, but it's definitely a move in the right direction. I'm hoping there are more upcoming singles, or even an album soon.

Always find it astonishing, given how I regarded them ten years ago, that Charli would end up winning this one

lol @ "the planet has a funny way of stopping a fight"

great tune this

this new song is not good

by which I mean this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5u3kP85LYI

it's actually better than I was expecting! Sounds more like the earlier stuff, well at least a little bit. Can't bear the lyrics.

the lyrics are the problem, good god I did not want serious quarantine references from Marina

musically it's more engaging than the last album, I'll give it that.

Yesterday on twitter she made a post with the album cover and release date and one reply said FINALLY YOUR FIRST NEW ALBUM IN SIX YEARS and all the weird stans who for some reason give Love & Fear a pass got furious.

I like this song a lot btw, lyrics and all. She's got a very singular way of writing a song. I'd never mistake anything from albums 1, 2, 3 and (what I've heard from) 5 for anyone else.

She tweeted about being on a podcast talking to a psychologist about fandoms/standoms because I think she wants to make sense of the weirdness of it. I'm listening to it now, but I haven't gotten into the meat of it yet. However, you look at the replies to her tweet and there are a thousand people saying "yasssss drag us to hell queeeeeeeen."

I'd fucking quit if I somehow attracted these motherfuckers.