Three years after the release of Electra Heart, Marina Diamandis is back with some inspiration from the past – the 80s to be precise – with her latest, Froot. Entirely written by the infectious Greco-Welsh belle, Froot is no Electra Heart or The Family Jewels and in some parts may even be shadowed by their success.
Opening the album is Marina’s first ballad, Happy. Accompanied by the piano, the song starts with introspective lyrics and sombre tunes until the layered vocals and the change in pace of the piano’s notes kicks in to turn the song into a proclamation of finding happiness in one’s self. The drums in the background provide a pace that times the lyrics – precocious production to say the least – making this track one of the few stand-outs in what could’ve easily passed off as reject from her previous albums.
Froot, the album’s namesake track, is a fantastic track. Unsurprisingly, this track was first released on Marina’s birthday last year as a gift to her fans. From the fruit-themed lyrics to the disco tunes dancing their way all through the song, Froot is a standout. The lyrics are there, the same layered vocals backed up with coos are there too, but what makes this an absolute treat is the pacing of the verses and the chorus. Three-fourths into the track, comes the bridge that lands you in Studio 54 for a fleeting moment and swings back into the infectious chorus sung in a quasi Greco accent for some added mystique. The chorus: “Living la dolce vita/Life couldn’t get much sweeter/Don’t you give me a reason/That it’s not the right season/Babe, I love you a lot/I’ll give you all I’ve got/Yeah, you know that it’s true/I’ve been saving all my summers for you/I’ve been saving all my summers for you/Like froot, like froot,” sung in that exotic voice puts Marina in the list of slick songwriters who, given the opportunity, can write something that provokes one to think of the words strung together beside the melody in a song.
For anyone familiar with 2010’s The Family Jewels, I’m A Ruin is a lyrical copy of the themes it explored and is updated to match the new age vibe Froot is all about. Blue is quintessentially 80s disco. The track is about closure and very Donna Summer/ABBA in its rhythm, transforming it into one of the few good tracks. The next track Forget is anything but unforgettable. Strong in its lyrics and production, this track ends the high Froot started on. After Forget, Gold, Can’t Pin Me Down and Solitaire forms the links of the slump in Froot’s journey. The tunes on two of them, particularly Gold and Can’t Pin Me Down are reminiscent of Electra Heart and don’t seem to be cut from the same cloth as Froot. Just skip them if you will, but Solitaire in that trio, is a track you can’t miss despite its defects. A ballad by definition, it is no Happy but manages to hold its own.
Better Than That, Weeds and Savages form another trio that is weak, but in this case Weeds holds some weight making it a personal recommendation I am ready to back up with its strong lyrics, choral verses, operatic notes, a tinge of classic rock and roll mingled with the nostalgia from the 80s. You can’t get tired of the references to the 80s on Froot, from the notes to the visuals accompanying all the singles that have been released so far. Sadness is explored extensively all through the album, but never more than in Immortal as it arrives on its heels at the end of the album closing it with an ominous ballad au contraire to the opener, Happy.
Everything we know is a regurgitation of anything that has been, and Froot derives its essence from everything popular from the 80s. Marina’s moment in pop history lasted for some time with Electra Heart and her return to pop many not be strong with Froot, but I don’t think the fantastic chanteuse even cares about relevance anymore. Sure, Froot is not fantastic pop in a package like her earlier work, but the point is, that it doesn’t have to be. You can’t ignore Marina’s skill at engineering pop jewels, and creative ballads so pick it up for the must have tracks alone and make Froot worth your money.
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