“Froot” Review

Cover of Marina and the Diamonds new album, Froot.

Cover of Marina and the Diamonds’ new album, “Froot.”

Rose Flynn, Contributing Writer

Marina Diamandis, more commonly known as singer Marina And The Diamonds, internationally released her new album, “Froot” this past Monday. This is the singer’s third studio album following “The Family Jewels” and “Electra Heart”. In the months preceding the release of the album, Diamandis released a new song every month for her sales campaign, “Froot Of The Month”. Six songs were given as a free download with the preorder of the album. Diamandis ran into trouble last month when her entire album was leaked on the internet. Although this began to damage sales, the singer remained positive and asked her listeners to still preorder the album.

“Froot” deals with different themes than her previous albums. The album reflects a lot of Diamandis’ own self-discoveries. Songs like “Happy”, “Blue”, and “Solitaire” portray the musician’s newfound happiness and contentedness with her own introversion. These bright moods contrasts the despair often portrayed in “Electra Heart”, and the loneliness mentioned in “The Family Jewels”. There are a handful of tunes on “Froot” that are quite dissimilar to Diamandis’ typical musical approach. Her lackadaisical track “Gold” and her oddly alternative track “Can’t Pin Me Down”, counter her usual upbeat pop.

Despite the differences, Diamandis has not changed everything for this album. The tracks “Froot” and “Can’t Pin Me Down” carry messages of a very confident, edgy, heartbreaker attitudes much like her previous, successful tracks, “Oh No!”, “Primadonna”, and “How To Be A Heartbreaker”. The musician, as a self-described feminist, again addresses women’s issues. Her previous song “Sex Yeah” from “Electra Heart” dealt with women’s roles as sex objects in society. This time around her track “Savages” deals with rape culture running rampant in today’s world, and humanity’s savagery in general. Diamandis included some great pop tunes in this album, such as “Froot” and “Blue,” that hail back to the “Electra Heart” era.

“Froot” has overall received fairly positive reviews from critics. It scored an 80/100 on Metacritic, and A- on Entertainment Weekly. Many enjoyed the album’s cohesive sound and felt that the new tone fit Diamandis’ unique voice more than her previous albums. Some felt that the album fell short in some places, and again hasn’t been able to fall into its niche in the pop world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this album. I liked that it carried a happier and almost more complete mood that made for less heavy listening. However; I did end up in tears after hearing “Happy” for the first time, (and many times after). One of the more dance-compatible tunes and my personal favorite “Blue”, has a recognizable bounciness to it. The ballad, “Immortal”, is a haunting track that hits home with its near-existential-crisis-giving lyrics. Although I loved this album, there are some songs I find myself ignoring, such as “Weeds”, a failed song about failed love, and the coincidentally forgettable track “Forget”. Overall, I prefer this album to “Electra Heart” and its almost overdone synthesesia, but it doesn’t beat “The Family Jewels” and the raw talent a premature Marina Diamandis brought to it.

Diamandis is currently set to perform at several music festivals this spring, including the large celebration that is Coachella. The musician is performing at Boston Calling in May at City Hall Plaza, and I for one will definitely attend. Marina And The Diamonds has come out of a spell of inactivity, and plans to go on a tour this fall. Good timing Marina, people all over the world are finding themselves hungry for some ‘froot’.