Marina Diamandis of Marina and the Diamonds performs at T4 On The Beach last week in England. Check out 'Primadonna,' 'The State of Dreaming' and 'How to Be a Heartbreaker' of her new album, 'Electra Heart.'
(Credit: By Joseph Okpako, Getty Images)
Listen Up: Marina and the Diamonds, more
This week in music
By Elysa Gardner, Edna Gundersen, Brian Mansfield and Jerry Shriver, USA TODAY
July 9, 2012
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- Critic's Rating:
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On her second album, U.K. import Marina Diamandis aims to send up the excesses and contradictions of USA-driven youth culture. But a warm romanticism and a cool ambition poke through these self-conscious, scrumptious electro-pop tunes, which nod both to Katy Perry and Kate Bush— and to Madonna, of course.
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The third solo album by the Armenian-American singer for System of a Down is by turns brilliant, baffling, beguiling and belligerent. Oh, and inscrutable. A longtime activist ($2 from each sale fights hunger), Tankian rails against materialism, hypocrisy and environmental abuses, rebellion echoed in his noisy bundling of art rock, world music and metal.
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SoCal rap-metal band brings back the boom after a four-year absence, sounding like the hook-laden harbinger of a spiritual apocalypse. The mix of metal, dub and hip-hop recalls 1999's The Fundamental Elements of Southtown and 2001's Satellite, with guest appearances by members of Cypress Hill and Hatebreed. Counterintuitively, it's the softest song that packs the hardest punch: Beautiful, which extends an offer of hope to those barely hanging on to the edges of life.
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You either buy into Junior's redneck provocateur/Tea Party poster boy shtick or you don't. Here, he lays the jingoistic politics, faux patriotism and simplistic social commentary on thick, aiming to squeeze a few more bucks out of poor, angry, white non-working stiffs. His voice is admirably strong, loud and clear, but old-school country fans will find more solace in his daddy's catalog.
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