The latest female singer-songwriter to be hailed as the new Kate Bush – Marina And The Diamonds – has announced details of her debut album.
The procession of slightly wacky women with ball-clenchingly high vocals is showing no signs of abating, with Welsh/Greek songstress Marina the latest off the production line.
Her debut, titled The Family Jewels, will be released on February 15 with a single, Hollywood, preceding it by a fortnight. The record includes previous singles I Am A Robot and Mowgli’s Road.
The tracklisting will be:
- Are You Satisfied?
- Shampain
- I Am Not A Robot
- Girls
- Mowgli’s Road
- Obsessions
- Hollywood
- The Outsider
- Hermit the Frog
- Rootless
- Numb
- Guilty
Marina herself describes the album thus:
“I am really proud to finally release my début album, The Family Jewels. It is a body of work largely inspired by the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family and female sexuality. Each song was intricately produced and written by myself and my only hope is for it to be enjoyed and consumed as a story and theory that encourages people to question themselves.”
Wow.
Oddly enough the PR bumf announces proudly that Marina took a staggering 482 vocal takes on one song, at her own insistence rather than that of producer Liam Howe. It’s being hailed as uber professionalism, but to us, it’s not a good thing that it took her nearly 500 goes to get it right. Anyway, if she’s had that many attempts, there’s no reason why The Family Jewels shouldn’t be an early contender for album of 2010.
jack horton
8 months ago
Why is it not a good thing to aim for perfection? If anything, 482 is impressive if it is at all beyond good. The Raven took 10 years, after all.
I absolutely adore her, I’ll admit. Having heard ‘Mowgli’s Road’, ‘I am not a robot’, and ‘Hollywood infected your brain’ I am genuinely impressed at the level of ingenuity. As always, I feel it a little harsh to tar her with the same brush, given the fact that she is by far and a way the most interesting thing to appear in the last X amount of months in this corner of the market.