Don’t fall in love with her yet…
[Video][Website]
[5.12]
Keane Tzong: Marina: “Not to toot my own trumpet but most of you diamonds know that I have the ‘big ones’ and it seems braver and more exciting to go with the song that is basically a wild card when you have the ‘big ones’ in your little pocket. There’s a time and place to set them free.” Me: “I’ll wait for one of the big ones, then. And stop calling me a diamond.”
[6]
Alfred Soto: An ungodly mixture of the Where The Wild Things Are soundtrack and Kate Bush, this would be a little easier to take if Marina didn’t chew on her vowels as if they were diamonds.
[3]
Anthony Easton: Is UK Pop weirder then American pop, or is it just me? (where weirder = more camp, more theatrical, wider ranging referents, more willingness to work with noise-like sounds…) (also cuckoo!)
[8]
Martin Kavka: In 2009, we’ve seen two “Woman & The X” types of acts: Florence with her machine, Marina with her diamonds. They’re both self-contentedly weird in the style of a woman whose name rhymes with Bate Kush. Still, I have an inchoate sense that while Florence engages in her weirdness because it gives her happiness, Marina only does it to get noticed. Her strutting doesn’t produce any ecstatic rush, but only a bizarre series of cuckoos that only amount to something like a sad sort of clanging from the clock in the hall.
[3]
Anthony Miccio: I’m pretty burnt out on piano-pounding quirky girls, but her hoots and hollers are strong enough to carry the instrument as she prances down the road with those laughing gnomes, who provide welcome context and entertainment.
[7]
Tal Rosenberg: The Jungle Book is my favorite Disney animated movie, which only exacerbates my disappointment. Not into the voice, which yelps in self-seriousness — not mock-seriousness — or at least I don’t hear mock-seriousness. Not into the music: Carly Simon staring into the Sunset Rubdown.
[2]
Alex Ostroff: In the early days of the Jukebox Revival, we reviewed Marina and the Diamonds’ adequate “Obsessions“, after which she fell off our radar for a while. Shame, that, because the fragile strength of “I Am Not a Robot” is one of the best songs of 2009. “Mowgli’s Road” uncharacteristically hits the ground running, with a jaunty piano line supported by a electropop bounce. The details are what elevate it beyond the standard 2009 schaffel fare: Marina’s cuckoos (as delightful as Shakira’s lycanthropic awoos), the decorative guitar feedback that peppers the second verse, the bonkers monkey chattering. Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli was abandoned and raised by wolves, but Marina appears to be torn between a life of silver spoons and the imagined freedom of the jungle. Bristling under the weight of expectations and conditional love, she is unwilling to simply say Y-E-S, preferring to find herself via trial and error. Even with overly quirky lines like “The cutlery will keep on chasing me!” and puns about forks in the road, there’s plenty to digest here.
[9]
Matt Cibula: Although I don’t like this song, I don’t hate the idea of exhuming 20-year-old Kate Bush licks and putting them into a girl-group context. Just wish she had focused more on the tune than just playing the wacky card (P.S. Don’t watch the video unless you are into Mümmenschanz porn).
[3]