seen from China
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seen from Nepal
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seen from United States
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seen from Netherlands
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Marina’s new songs are bangers, sound-wise, but lyrically they’ve started reflecting a kind of didacticism that reflects popular social media refrains that I happen to find insufferable (as well as ideologically skewed). I liked her better when she was deconstructing women’s roles in the entertainment industry.
God, Love + Fear is such a frustrating album. Production-wise, it’s incredibly sharp, and her voice is so silky and gorgeous. But the lyrics are just so trite in so many places, and generally lack her usual cleverness and incisiveness. Like, “Believe in Love” is one of my favourites from that album, but even there, there are so many turns of phrase that are just so uninspired.
(Granted, I don’t think any album comes close to The Family Jewels in terms of the emotional realities captured. But this one feels particularly weak in that regard.)
Just discovered that I got sent a free digital copy of Marina’s new album because I purchased tickets to her show, so that’s exciting
I’ve stumbled across a post that was like, “If you prefer Marina’s older music to her new stuff, then you just enjoyed the fact that she was depressed! why can’t you appreciate that she’s happy” and like look. I like some of her new stuff, but maybe there’s a reason I gravitate towards her stuff about being a disaster and struggling with identity and fulfillment? And maybe it has very little to do with her and a lot to do with me and my life? Just a thought?
(Also - I don’t really know the extent to which her personal life has influenced the progression of her music/lyrical themes, but some of you really need to learn the difference between “artistic persona someone adopts while narrating” and “person’s actual self and experiences,” even if the first is adapted from the second.)
shoutout to Marina for perfectly summing up my gender identity with the line “look like a girl, but I think like a guy”
More Electra Heart blogging bc this is how I temper the grumpiness on my blog
“Homewrecker” was /made/ to be a show tune. The narration that’s sensationalized content-wise but completely apathetic to the point of parody in tone, the general rhythm of the chorus, the episodic nature of the entire song... I can just picture some lady belting it out on a stage or onscreen while strutting around in heels and flicking a cigarette. I need an Electra Heart musical okay.
I feel like I like Marina’s dealings with “the harmful effects of gender roles on [heterosexual] women” for the same reasons that I like Atwood’s, despite their actual portrayal of those things being very different. Basically I feel like a lot of feminist media (or media that is referred to as feminist by mainstream press) seems to be “innocent, kind, good woman harmed by gender roles and this is unfair” or “woman embraces negative image/stereotypes and loves it”. And I really like stuff that criticizes patriarchy without relying those tropes, and that hones in on the ugly and complicated ways in which those roles affect individual women. A lot of Marina’s commentary on gender feels very personal and individualized, whether in relation to herself or the persona she puts on in her songs, and she really gets at the gritty and traumatizing aspect of it without relying on innocence as a means of selling it. She often portrays herself as this stereotype of “bad women”, i.e. selfish and spiteful and generally unlikeable, but does it in such a way that exposes the harmful societal attitudes that shoehorn women into acting in those sorts of ways? Idk I’m not wording this well but yeah.
I really love how many different voices she takes on, vocally, and “Hypocrates” feels like the most “natural” singing voice she has in any of her songs I’ve heard.
Apologies for the salt. I actually had a great day today, as most of it was spent volunteering and teaching small children about science.
Allow me to temper my yelling at my dash with the revelation that I recently received “Electra Heart” as a gift, and my favorite thing thus far is Marina’s narration at the beginning of “Homewrecker” about the difficulty and tragedy in trying to find a proper lover, in such a deadpan tone that she doesn’t appear to actually give a shit about it.
MARINA IS DOING A SHOW IN MY CITY, MY CROPS ARE THRIVING
