The album opens with the playful "Bubblegum Bitch" which sounds a bit like what "bubblegum pop" may have sounded like during the 80s. This is perhaps the most powerful track featured on the record, a fun, sassy tune demanding possession. You are crazy for letting me go. You're in love with me, and here's how I know. It is ridiculously catchy. Then, we move into "Primadonna" which is the first official single from the album. "Primadonna" is a lot of fun, a fast-paced electropop song about wanting to embrace the pleasures of life and still be loved. It's basically from the perspective of a spoiled brat. I am out of control, do what I want, but I want you to love me, anyway. "Lies" is the first slow number of the record and is a beautiful song about heartbreak, a relationship that still exists but under false pretenses, for the all of the wrong reasons. "Homewrecker" is great because of the spoken verses and tells a story from an unusual perspective. It's not from the perspective of a victim but instead from a victimizer, someone who destroys happiness. I consider this and the new "How to Be a Heartbreaker" to be on the same wavelength because they sort of both match a description that I read not too long ago - emotional sadism, which is an interesting term. "Starring Role" is definitely one of my favorites; it is another slow one and is probably the darkest song on the album. Beautifully written and sang, it is from the perspective of a heartbroken woman who is facing a difficult dilemma. Do I stay in his life as a friend, which would really hurt because I love him, or do I leave him completely, which would also really hurt because I love him? It's a difficult dilemma to which I can relate, and it's an utterly beautiful song.
The album's mood perks up a bit at "The State of Dreaming" which is an upbeat, "feel good" pop song about living ignorantly blissful. Marina has said that the song was written to pay tribute to Marilyn Monroe, someone whom she admires dearly (as if Electra's image doesn't give that away). "Power & Control" is the second single from the album and is so ingeniously multilayered, featuring powerful vocals, piano, synths, and so forth, and I'm so glad that the "chanty" melody at the beginning that flows throughout was modified to what it now is; on demo versions, the melody is played by a guitar, and it is so much more serious and intense the way that it is on the album. The song is about flimsy relationships that are based not necessarily on authentic love but on a lust for being in control of the relationship, and Electra seems to be in control. "Living Dead" is actually the first song that was written for the album, which is funny because with that being considered, you would think that it would be closer to the sound from The Family Jewels, especially since she apparently hadn't had the album's concept developed yet, but it is not at all like The Family Jewels and definitely belongs here on Electra Heart. The song is basically an 80s synthpop track about feeling empty, feeling like you're living day by day with nothing to live for. I think that thematically, the first record deals more with depression, but musically, this track belongs here. "Teen Idle" has been praised by so many diamonds, including pop musician Simon Curtis. Musically, it has to be one of the most creative pop songs that I've ever heard, slow and a bit brooding but not necessarily depressive, and is a song about feeling like you didn't live your teenage ways the way that you should have, that you were a bum, and I can relate to that because I never had the opportunity to be a teenager; I was sheltered, imprisoned, really.
"Valley of the Dolls" is gorgeous; I just love the magical feeling of it. This is another one that seems to be about depression, about feeling like you're in a hole in which you can't figure out who you are. "Hypocrates" kind of sounds like something Britney Spears may have done during her earlier days, and it also has remnants of Kelly Clarkson's sound. The song speaks of someone whom the speaker loves dearly but always feels at odds with because of his tendency to be hypocritical, to criticize her for doing things that he himself does. I'm not in a relationship like that, but we all know people like that. The standard edition of the album closes with "Fear and Loathing" which kind of reminds me of "I Am Not a Robot" in that it kind of urges listeners, which, funnily enough, includes the speaker, to be proud of who they are and stall tall against resistance, to not be constantly afraid and self-hating. It's almost dreamy, in a sense. This is the kind of life, the kind of confidence, that I wish that I could have. It's like "Valley of the Dolls" in that it deals with confusion of self-identity. The standard edition closes there, but the deluxe edition gives us "Radioactive" next, a really fun track that, to me, is about what it feels like to be in love with someone, to glow around them, to be something other than human. "Sex Yeah" is a really catchy tune about how difficult being a female can be and about how obsessed we are, as humans, with sex. I love "Lonely Hearts Club" which is an upbeat song heavy in synths that reminds people who are experiencing broken hearts that they're not alone, that they belong to a culture of people who feel the same way. The deluxe version closes with "Buy the Stars" which, in my opinion, is the only song that could fit on the first record, and it, in fact, sounds strikingly similar to "Numb" from the first record. It's slow and beautiful and is almost a song of defeat. I can't be what you need. I'd like to be, but I can't.
The album was just recently released here in the U.S. and features the new track "How to Be a Heartbreaker" which is just awesome. It will be released as the third single from the album, and I can't wait to see the official single cover art (there are a few really good fanmade ones). I am confident that "How to Be a Heartbreaker" is going to be a hit here in the States; it just features more "radio material" than anything that she's done so far, and I can hear it being played. Electra Heart is doing really well on U.S. iTunes, and I have very mixed feelings about her exploding here. I love Marina; I think that she is an incredibly talented, original artist, and she deserves fame and recognition, but at the same time, I don't know very many people here in the States who know she is, so she feels like an exclusive treasure of mine, and I'm afraid of mainstream people who base good music on what's on the radio thinking that she's new, singing along to "How to Be a Heartbreaker" in the car because it's catchy but not really appreciating her as an artist. I know that some people who really love The Family Jewels have expressed their dissatisfaction with the record because of how drastically different it is from The Family Jewels, and it really is drastically different. Whereas The Family Jewels is a collection of piano-based power pop, Electra Heart features very little piano and is based more on synths and beats. It's not as "indie" and is definitely electropop. However, artists grow and consequently change, and that's what we hear here, and I adore both albums. Marina is a true artist who I believe will always have something interesting and creative as long as her name is around, and I can't wait to continue embarking upon the journey as a diamond. I just wish that "Scab & Plaster" (a song that I absolutely adore with an intense passion) had made it onto the album, but at least we've heard it, and maybe it will be released as a b-side or something.
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