2010 promised to be a big year for the 24 year old from Wales. She had to settle for second place in the BBC's Sound of 2010 behind Ellie Goulding and was narrowly nudged off the Critic's Choice Brit award by the same artist but the signs were good. Perhaps wisely then her debut album, 'The Family Jewels', was pencilled in for release a week before Goulding's 'Lights' and the world waited to see what was in store.
If I'm honest it's a bit of a mixed bag. The early singles 'I Am Not A Robot', 'Mowgli's Road' and 'Obsessions' hinted at a quiet indie coolness that could threaten Florence's throne but then 'Hollywood' threw a major pop shaped spanner in the works and that's the major problem. Marina seems like she can't decide whether to be a Florence and the Machine/Bat for Lashesesque indie queen or a Lady Gaga/Madonna style pop princess. The album veers between the aforementioned indie stylings and the pop veneer of songs like 'Shampain' and 'Girls'; all finely crafted but it doesn't really make for a flowing piece of work. As well as this the very self-motivated lyrics ('Don't do love, don't do friends, I'm only after success', 'They say I am a control freak, driven a greed to succeed' etc), don't create an instantly likeable character, as lovely as she may be away from the music.
However, the strength of the songs individually means that the album still merits a positive review. Album opener 'Are You Satisfied' is one of the rare moments where indie cool is in perfect harmony with the pop and the final trio of songs, 'Rootless','Numb' and 'Guilty' create a very strong finale. Debut albums often suffer from an eclecticism as artists struggle to experiment and define themselves so I think it would be fair to wait for the sophomore album before any real criticism can be given to her.
7/10
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