Electra Heart. Released: 2011 - 2012
Album art: Atlantic Records.
Released 2-3 years after her previous album, Electra Heart seems like Marina's entry into the pop scene. By pop here, I mean popular, anything that's not indie. The songs are unique, brimming with ideas along the lines of girl power. The preppy tunes keep ringing in ones head for a long while, way after you've had an Electra Heart listening marathon (I can say that for myself, at least).
The album starts off with Bubblegum Bitch. The song introduces us to the life of Electra Heart. I presume it's a pseudo identity of one side of Marina. A side most teenage pop lovers would love to idolize. A woman who is strong willed, who's had it with bullshit, and who wouldn't be afraid to be bad. I think I do not agree to most of the songs here, and hopefully, all those teenage girls don't either. Marina herself has stated once, that she wasn't as attached to this album as her other works, as it wasn't very satisfying to her actual purpose, and was too pop for her liking. I agree. But I can't at the same time. Despite the bad-girl image Electra Heart has in store for us, I can't help but agree that this album, offers a sense of liberation, and realizations, that life is too short to feel sad about messed up things.
The Primadonna girl is nasty, narcissistic, and egoistic. But she doesn't care why people make a fuss out of it. She just wants to be adored! Lies is a song from the sadder lot of her songs. Somehow, I always find her sadder songs more realistic, than the ones in which she seems happy. The happiness, seems like a facade; she's always simply just waiting to be hurt again. I love Homewrecker, honestly? because it's got some great lyrics. "Boys and their toys, and their six inch rockets", WHAT? It's too funny and catchy not to sing out loud. "I don't belong to everyone." Sometimes I wonder if this all is just a reaction of what Marina had to go through during The Family Jewels.
The next song The Starring Role, is one of my favorite songs to feel depressed to. Even if I'm not sad for the same reasons as Marina seems to be in this song, "Sometimes I Ignore you, so I feel in control. Cuz really, I adore you, and I can't leave you alone." The reason why I like this song, is because it pushes me forth to stop feeling sad that I'm, well, sad. There's a certain satisfaction in realizing that you too can feel sad, and feeling that too, is a wonderful thing you could be grateful for. I love Marina's voice on this one. The next song, The State Of Dreaming, is too beautiful! PRETTY SURE the Diamonds will relate to this when they're sad. Here's the video -
Power & Control has some amazing beats, another lovely song from Electra Heart, and it talks about the dynamics of power, and control, in relationships. Which brings us to the next scandalous song, Sex yeah.
"Question what the TV tells you,
question what a pop start sells you,
question mom and question dad,
question good, and question bad."
I love these lines! The single hope from Marina where she's asking us to be careful of the things she does in her own life, as Electra Heart. She's talking about the society here; can someone tell me how in the world she manages to talk about serious things with so much fun? Maybe it's just her voice, and her choices of rhythm. A serious world that we live in, and a light-hearted way to handle things. Remind you of how most good people out there deal with things in the world?
Teen Idle won the hearts of many Marina listeners. It's preppy, fun, dark, and very girly. She wants your blood, guts and angel cake, for Christs sake! Every girl wants to be a Teen Idle. Or does not, really not, want to be one. Either way, every girl knows what a Teen Idle is, and has her own version of story around it. Listen to the song if you'd like to understand what many young girls go through.
One can find Marina in the Valley Of The Dolls, with countless others that she's speaks for, as a spokesperson, "Living with identities, that do not, belong to me. In my life, I've got this far, now I'm ready for my last hoorah. Dying like a shooting star, in the valley." This song talks about the cycle that these 'dolls' find themselves in. Of rising, and falling.
In Hypocrates, Marina stands her own guard against, a certain someone. Someone who's trying to tame her, or perhaps, guide her for what they feel is better for her own good. She doesn't agree though, or even if she does, is too mad to even consider what's good for her, in the light of her not being able to be in control of her own life. Electra Heart is hell bent on breaking hearts. In How To Be A Heartbreaker she gives us easy tips on how to do exactly that. Even though this song is far from what I think Marina is REALLY about, it's one of her popular songs, loved by many across the globe.
Radioactive is the song that casts Marina as a queen. She takes the charge of her situation, and perhaps of the people around her, and declares that fact to the world. The song tells us that she's disappointed in others. "Ready to be let down, now I'm heading for a meltdown."
The last song of the album, gives us the Marina we all knew all along. All along this pompous galore she had created around Electra Heart. "Now I see, I see it for the first time, there is no crime, in being kind." I think she tries to justify her actions with the help of this song. Of what made her make the wrong choices, what she's learned from them, how it has changed her, and how it she can still change for the better. I think she wrote the song addressing herself. "Baby you don't have to live your life in fear." No body wants to live in Fear and Loathing.
Even though the album is not something I would preach about (it's got way too many narcissistic elements for my liking), it deals with some extremely real situations many girls find themselves facing. Marina is extremely narcissistic though, and I can't hate her for that. She's honest, and true, and I love the way she's proud about being truthful, even if she lacks the subtlety of being more polite. This album resulted in a spike in Marina's popularity. I for one discovered her around this time too. One can certainly let go, and dance nights away, swinging to the beats of Electra Heart, knowing that what they feel, is felt by someone else out there too. As usual, Marina is a queen, and Electra Heart makes up for an extremely lovely album to listen to.