Love + Fear - MARINA: Review

Marina Diamandis

aka Marina And The Diamonds, aka Marina is an English pop singer who blew up in the early 2010's with the debut Marina And The Diamonds album The Family Jewels. She followed this up with a critically acclaimed sophomore concept album, Electra Heart in 2012. But took a much more palatable and commercial approach on 2015's Froot and was met with mixed reviews. After a four year gap Marina is back under the new title of simply "Marina" she dropped three singles for the project, then dropped the first half of it Love before releasing the project in its entirety as Love + Fear. 

Review By Lavender:

I am a firm believer to this day that the first two Marina and The Diamonds albums The Family Jewels and Electra Heart are excellent contemporary pop albums that found a way to separate themselves from the field and make music that has aged very well. The sharp electropop songwriting and energetic instrumentals made these songs a dream to return to over and over again, but when Froot came out in 2015 these elements weren't quite as well executed. The album isn't bad but it was certainly a let down given Marina's pedigree. So since it has been 7 years since the last Marina album I truly loved and the three singles for this project didn't thrill me my expectations weren't through the roof. But Marina still manages to slide under the line anyway. 

The trilogy of singles that led up to the initial release of Love ran the full gambit of quality, starting with the lead single and comeback ballad Handmade Heaven. It's a good but not great ballad with verses that bore to tears but a very solid hook. The instrumental is once again a dreadfully boring sludge through the verses but the explosion into the hook is a pretty interesting moment. The second single was the one that underwhelmed me the most. Superstar is a just barely there pop ballad that does not stand out in any significant way whatsoever. Marina's performance is decent but he generic songwriting is so drab and dry that making it through this thing can genuinely be a challenge. Thankfully the third single is a fantastic one, and one of the only songs I really unequivocally enjoyed on the album. Orange Trees has an incredible cute demeanor helped by great lyrics, catchy sweet refrains, a bright and shimmery instrumental and an excellent performance from Marina. Every passage here is great and this should have been the benchmark for what the rest of the project sounded like, but unfortunately the Love half of the record isn't quite so satisfying.

Even though I wasn't floored by any of the songs here there were some moments I liked. End Of The Earth is a pretty good stripped back song that lets Marina shine and it's one of the few moments that she is able to overcome a lackluster instrumental with a good performance. Enjoy Your Life is similarly sweet and opens up on a great start but has nothing much to offer, by the time you reach the end of this track it has been boring for somewhere around two minutes. Shockingly the latin pop crossover song Baby isn't terrible and it's far from the worst try I've heard in pop over the past few years. While it is a touch generic Marina is still the highlight and it doesn't stand out too badly on the album.

The two rough songs here are True and To Be Human. Both are painfully underwritten and even though the beat on True is alright neither of them are able to recover into songs that are worth holding on to. What they are though, is about the same quality as most of the BEST tracks on the Fear half of this album. I feel pretty confident in saying this may be the quickest I've seen an artists go from cutting edge to dated in the history of the pop world as the second half of this thing sounds like a two bit excuse a 60 year old popstar would use to go back on tour again and play their classics.

Track after track on Fear is a boring trudge through pop misery over and over again. Believe In Love tries to stick in some edgy whispered vocals but ends up missing the mark when they are paired with a depressingly flat chorus that kills the mood. You is one of the most empty, airy and lifeless ballads here with absolutely nothing to suck your teeth into. Emotional Machine is another track that has a little bit going for it in some decent verses but an absolutely awful chorus and a far too long runtime kill any of the energy it starts to develop. Finally the last song that falls completely flat is No More Suckers, Marina has a lot of attitude here but there really isn't any semblance of tight songwriting and the track randomly wanders to an underwhelming conclusion.

There is a pair of songs on the first half of Fear that are decent however. Life Is Strange overstays its welcome for sure but while it is on there are some cute strings and a pretty engaging song structure that helps it stand out among some of the dryer tracks strewn across the project. Karma is decent as well with some solid interpolations of latin music and pretty solid storytelling. On top of these this half of the project ends with two songs that I actually enjoyed.

Too Afraid is a very personal tune that peels back the world of Marina's love life with some personal lyrics. It works in some great whispered supporting vocals that help brighten up the instrumental for what is probably the highlight of Fear. Finally the album thankfully closes on a good moment with Soft To Be Strong, a tightly written ballad with a great performance that wraps up the handful of things this album does well right at the end. 

Love+Fear is by far the most underwhelming moment in Marina's career thus far but not everything here is a disappointment. Just shy of half this record is made up of solid tracks that embody everything you'd expect from a late career pop artist that still cares about their output. The two problems with this are that the second half of this album is dreadfully boring and uninspired pop music that you forget as soon as it's off, and even more importantly that this is only her 4th album, she has been in the industry for only ten years and is only 33 years old. If this is already the type of music Marina has transitioned into making it is definitely difficult for me to look forward to what may be coming next, from a discography I once considered to be one of the sharpest in modern pop. 4/10

Best Track: Orange Trees

For more pop check out my review of Avril Levigne's Head Above Water here.