The third studio album by Marina and the Diamonds sees Welsh frontwoman Marina Lambrini Diamandis return to her distinctive pop sound infused with the sultry tones of an ex-choir girl. The album mirrors the shape of her last album “Electra Heart” with the regular shifts between slow, emotional ballads and upbeat electro-pop ditty – maybe a little bit too much.
The album’s first track “Happy” shows the lead singer’s Regina Spektor side with soft piano parts, a slow beat and choral harmonies, leading into the utterly different “Froot” – a weird, cyber synthy pop number that holds host to lyrics that see Marina take on the perspective of the song’s subject: “Hanging like a fruit//Ready to be juiced”.
The contrast is welcomed, as there are a lot of love songs to come on the album, many with interchangeable themes. From “It’s difficult to say goodbye and easier to live a lover’s lie” in “I’m a Ruin” to “We’ve broken up and I regret it//I said goodbye when I shouldn’t have said it.” in “Blue”, it does start to seem a little bit repetitive.
Saying that, the album delivers what people have come to know and love from the “indie artist with pop goals”, as she once described herself – addictive, albeit slightly cheesy pop songs with a difference. She draws on contemporaries such as Alphabeat and La Roux, but has the distinctively powerful and unique voice of singer songwriters such as aforementioned Regina Spektor and Imogen Heap, with a rather impressive vocal range.
There’s also a voice of female liberation running throughout the whole album, from the punchy “Can’t Pin Me Down” to the singleton sirens of “Solitaire”. The album ends on the fitting “Immortal”, a spacey Portishead-inspired song about the inevitability of death that sees Marina “chasing after time” but admitting that “everybody dies” – her plea “I wanna be immortal” aptly echoes how her pop-ballad sound has lived on from album to album.
“Froot” is a, well, fruity pop album filled with lots of easy-to-listen-to songs, aided by Marina’s tremendous voice – but it’s not revolutionary. Taking more influence from pop icons of the eighties such as Madonna through some of the spacey synth-injected tracks on the album, it’s a small step away from her previous work, but retains predictability with some simplified, repetitive lyrics – making her words “The problem with history, it keeps coming back like weed” in song “Weeds” apt. But it’s full of female empowerment, full of catchy songs, and still well worth a listen.
