Review Summary: Froot is good, but ultimately not as full-flavoured as Marina's first two efforts.
FROOT was a confusing concept to begin with. An album titled
Fruit would’ve been strange enough; let alone
Froot (or
FROOT). The spelling change, seemingly for no reason other than aesthetic, is definitely a curious choice. Then again, Marina and the Diamonds has always been quirky – her cartoony vocal inflections and bubbly compositions are what made her 2010 debut
The Family Jewels so successful. She then followed up in 2012 with the conceptual
Electra Heart, which had more polished production and sleeker songwriting. Both those albums are fantastic, and Marina has drawn from both of them in her creation of
FROOT, but what’s resulted is derivative of both its predecessors. It’s her first disappointing record – it’s not terrible, not even bad enough to be merely average, but in a word, it’s confused.
From the pre-release singles Marina has shared so far, you’d be forgiven for disagreeing with that first paragraph. The title track is the album’s standout, an up-tempo number that draws from
The Family Jewels with Marina’s vocal yelps and the 80s synths and from
Electra Heart with its image-rich lyrics and streamlined production. “Froot” represents the best of both worlds, clearly what Marina was aiming for on the album. “I’m A Ruin” similarly marries lyrical themes from
Heart with
Jewels’ new wave vibe to birth a very catchy first single. The other two promotional singles, “Happy” and “Immortal”, are proof Marina still knows how to write great ballads. The former is uplifting both lyrically and musically, and crescendos towards a triumphant, rewarding finish, and the latter is just heartbreaking – Marina’s declaration of “If I could buy forever at a price, I would buy it twice” is perhaps her most vulnerable confession since before the
Electra Heart era.
It’s in the mid-section of
FROOT where it falters in comparison to its predecessors. “Forget” stood out as one of the catchiest tracks on the album, until repeated listens revealed that this was because of a more-than-passing similarity to Marina’s biggest hit, “Primadonna”. It will take a few spins to be able to distinguish between “Gold”, “Solitaire” and “Weeds”, as they’re all cut from the same cloth – mid-tempo tracks that have pleasant melodies but fail to reach any kind of truly satisfying musical climax. Furthermore, “Better Than That” and “Savages” come off as uninspired attempts to recreate “Shampain” (from
Jewels) and “The State Of Dreaming” (from
Heart). If those songs and albums never existed, then I might be talking about how catchy and clever the new songs are, but in the shadow of her discography we’re just reminded of how much better Marina can do.
The odds were stacked against
FROOT – it had two stellar albums to live up to and its best material has already been released prior its official launch. If Marina either continued to perfect the style of either of her first two albums, or if she presented something that sounded totally fresh, she might have created an album that reaches the high bar she’s set for herself. We already know she’s a fantastic singer and talented songwriter. However, by not committing fully to either direction, she’s created a good record, but one that stumbles over its feet too much to become an amazing one.
