Charting Within Months: Part VIII – Marina & The Diamonds

marina-cover

Music critics do love a good back-lash, don’t they? Take, for example, White Lies. Just over a year ago, there was barely a critic not getting hard over every demo that they were pumping out. Every A&R wannabe (myself included) was tipping them at every possible juncture. And then? And then we were right, and for some reason that annoys critics to such an extent that they then blame this success (that they predicted) on the perennial evil; major labels. For a reason which I cannot explain, major labels are, on a scale of evilness that runs from nunnery to Satan, the love child of Hitler and Stalin. Of course, major labels themselves are more than questionable in the way that they treat music, but most of the music that we say is released “on a major label” is just funded by the major, and released on a much more personal subsidiary. Anyway, as I was saying, this seems to be how this particular sector of the music industry works. We tip them, are proved right, and then ditch them. Fucking sell outs.

This much loved back-lash is, in my opinion, in danger of overshadowing the well established fact that Marina (& all of her Diamonds) is a pop star that Britain needs if we are ever going to counter-act strangely popular bland pop music. If you’ve been reading this blog, you’ll have noticed that we’ve mentioned her countless (as in, we can’t be bothered counting) times, and asked her some boring questions here, and coupled with the fact that Marina is about to release her major label debut in February (The Family Jewels; see above), we have a dangerously White-Lies-esq situation. On top of which, her latest single “Hollywood” is going to receive an outing in early February. And it is “Hollywood” that has sparked some controversy. The thing is, I think, is that it’s so good, so unashamedly pop, nodding back to an era when you didn’t have to lack self respect to admit to liking pop music, that we know it’s going to be successful, which scares critics. Personally, I think it’s a possessive thing. Marina has been the critics darling for most of the past year, and I’m convinced that many just find it hard to let go, resorting to petulant tactics; name calling and shit throwing, generally. Fun, yes, but petulant.

On a less crazy-abstract-theory level, and on a more factual-basis, the allegations that “Hollywood” is Marina lost up the giant, stinking entrails of our good friend the major label are completely insane. First of all, “Hollywood” was written years ago, long before the scout A&R started stalking her. I don’t really need a second point, since that effectively disproves the sell out myth, but since I’ve already expended too much time arguing this case, I may as well just add that Marina’s Satanist major label is actually a subsidiary that includes the Mystery Jets and MSTRKRFT within their relatively small roster. Hardly sharing urinals with Robbie Williams then, is it.

So, yes, Charting Within Months without a doubt, but when she is burying beige pop music in her piano pounding dust, maybe we should just be happy that well, we were right (without being too self congratulating; it was pretty obvious!),  instead of furiously telling our less-hip friends that “I liked her before she sold out and got popular”, because for every vapid X Factor winner, we need a pop star like Marina.

Speaking of which, it’s really quite (suspiciously?) convenient that the quite brilliant Fenech-Soler (previous Charting Within Months-ers) have conjured up a mildly sexually arousing remix of “Hollywood”. Generally, I can’t stand the whole band-turns-remixer gimmick. We get it, you’ve got a copy of Ableton, congratulations. However, Fenech-Soler definitely know what they’re doing with this enormous remix. Definitely deserving of their copy of Ableton, in my opinion.

Marina And The Diamonds – Hollywood (Fenech-Soler Remix)

Words: Phil. This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 6th, 2010 at 2:27 pm and is filed under marina and the diamonds. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Charting Within Months: Part VIII – Marina & The Diamonds”

Leave a Reply