MARINA - Baby - Single [Review]

Late last year, indie pop musician MARINA (actual name Marina Diamandis and formerly known as Marina and the Diamonds) released her new single "Baby," her second collaboration with electronic group Clean Bandit (the first being the single "Disconnect"). As is the case with "Disconnect" (as well as other Clean Bandit songs such as "Solo" with Demi Lovato and "Rockabye" with Anne-Marie and Sean Paul), MARINA takes the lead on vocals (this time with a little bit of help from Luis Fonsi) even though it's technically a Clean Bandit song and not a MARINA song. "Disconnect" ended up being a loose standalone single, and "Baby" ended up on Clean Bandit's second album What Is Love?, so it came as a huge surprise to me when MARINA unveiled the tracklisting of her upcoming fourth album Love + Fear, revealing that "Baby" would also be on her album, meaning that "Baby" (not "Handmade Heaven," which I reviewed here) is technically the first single released from Love + Fear. "Baby" is an uptempo pop song with a very distinctive Latin flavor, not only because of the Latin rhythm but also because of Luis Fonsi's Spanish lyrics. (His solo verse approximately halfway through the song translates roughly to "Hey, I know you still like me no matter what you say. I can also see in your eyes that you do not just want to be friends. You have my heart; you are my obsession. I am yours always." MARINA recently announced that the vinyl edition of Love + Fear will feature a solo version of the song that does not feature Fonsi's vocals, which will be exclusive to the vinyl. I don't know if it will be featured as a bonus track or will replace the original version, but I am thinking the latter.) Diamandis provides her typical soft and porcelain vocals to this song, and I especially love the part of the song when she sings, her voice seeming to teem with genuine regret, "...and it's such a shame you'll always be the one who got away." The song is essentially about a love triangle, with the primary speaker expressing regret that she has to move past a former lover because she is with someone else now. What I don't understand about the song's meaning is why there is so much conflict and indecision. If, for example, she truly does find it such a shame that her lover "got away" but the only real conflict is that she is "someone else's baby" (someone who isn't even remotely the focus of the song and whom we know nothing about), then why doesn't she call things off with her current lover so that she can be with the person with whom she truly wants to be? I have been kind of stuck on that ever since first hearing the song, but I digress. It's a great, catchy song, and I am ultimately glad that MARINA is including it on Love + Fear, which is due to drop on April 26th, 2019.