Forgive me, Dear Readers, for I have once again sinned.
Somehow I have yet to post my thoughts about Marina and the Diamonds sophomore release “Electra Heart”, despite having written a rather lengthy piece about it’s concept and marketing plan prior to it’s European release nearly three months ago.
In my defense, I have made multiple attempts to finish and post this piece and somehow just never managed to sort out my thoughts to complete it until now. Luckily, the album was released today (7/10/2012) in North America and since I happen to call Canada my home and native land, it’s only suiting that I post my thoughts on “Electra Heart” on the day it becomes available for purchase on my shores.
It seems that a frequent criticism of concept albums is that the music is overshadowed by the pressure to understand the conceptual context of each song, rendering a body of work “lost” in it’s own conceptual fog. Given that Diamandis has gone to such lengths to present the release as a concept album, even adopting an entirely new character & image, I feel the concept should be a significant part of the discussion despite the inherrent risk of this possibility.
Diamandis has discussed “Electra Heart” in great detail as a kind-of character study channeling four female Archetypes and telling a story about dysfunctional love, using elements of Greek Tragedy. When analyzing the entirety of “Electra Heart” within the multi-faceted concept some may argue that it’s much easier to find fault in the project than if you choose to disregard its concept and listen solely as a fan of pop music. In the name of fairness, I have decided to present my thoughts on the album within each of these contexts; it’s strength as a concept album and it’s strength as a body of what I believe to be rather brilliant pop music.
PREACH. 