The life of Electra Heart 13 years later
Elena Hernandez - Music Editor
“Welcome to the life of Electra Heart,” – declares Marina Lambrini Diamandis, Welsh singer-songwriter formally known as Marina and the Diamonds (now simply known as MARINA) in the opening track “Bubblegum Bitch” of her sophomore record. Although much mythologized, critics and fans alike originally expressed ambivalence after its release thirteen years ago. In the years following, it's earned the status of a cult classic and, somehow, is a peak Diamandis hasn’t been able to reach again since.
Electra Heart is a 12-track concept album revolving around the titular character who portrays four female archetypes in popular culture: Housewife, beauty queen, homewrecker, and idle teen. Her utilization of alter egos received much criticism as many critics felt Diamandis was hiding behind a “half-baked” image of “everything she isn’t.” What they failed to consider is that Diamandis’s decision to write semi-autobiographical songs behind an alter ego wasn’t a completely serious one. It was an attempt to satirize age-old stereotypes, all while staying true to her own experiences that also happen to be common among people raised as “women” in our society.
It’s safe to say, in Diamandis’s own words, that some aspects of the final product are “a bit cringe.” In “Primadonna” she admits, “I know I’ve got a big ego/ I really don’t know why it’s such a big deal, though.” “How to Be a Heartbreaker” is Diamandis’s guide to exactly that, encouraging her listener to “get him falling for a stranger, a player.” Although some may consider them products of their time, these two tracks are undoubtedly the most popular on the record.
“Homewrecker” is one track that received especially negative reviews, with Pitchfork citing its “[clashing] excruciatingly bad spoken word verses” as the reason. What they left out was the unfortunate level of relatability to them. She begins, “Deception and perfection are wonderful traits/ One will breed love, the other, hate.” She finishes with a verse against a stompy dance-pop beat where she confesses all she wishes for is “love and trust and laughter” that she can never have because alas, she’s a “homewrecker” and “only happy when [she’s] on the run”. “Teen Idle” was called a “horrible, glitchy ballad” despite being a favorite of fans who positively received the album at the time. In it, she sings of all too familiar high school years “meant to be beautiful,” that were instead spent “burning up a bible” and “feeling super, super, super! (Suicidal).”
Although it’s hard to narrow it down to only a few personal favorites (I believe it’s a no-skip), “Lies” is a dubstep-inspired track with songwriting that manages to be heartwrenching despite its simplicity. “You only ever touch me in the dark/ Only if we’re drinking, do you see my spark…Why don’t we just pretend?” sings Diamandis. “Power & Control” explores the “eternal game of tug and war” between men and women that is love, despite us being “the same.” Finally, “Sex Yeah” is a criticism of the division and enforcement of gender roles. “Been there, done that, got the t-shirt/ Sold my soul and yeah, the truth hurt,” she sings in its second half, “Tired image of a star/ Acting naughtier than we really are.”
The record saw a resurgence in popularity almost 10 years later and continues to reach completely new audiences. In 2021, its opener was certified gold in the U.S. thanks to its virality on the app TikTok. A decade after their original review in which they declared the record “the final stamp of disapproval on [MARINA’s] flailing excuse of a music career,” Clash magazine retracted their original scoring of 1 out of ten, calling it “cruel, rude, and actually pretty offensive.” In 2022, Rolling Stone retrospectively listed it as one of the greatest concept albums of all time. MARINA’s sixth studio album, PRINCESS OF POWER, is due for release on June 6th.
It’s been 5 years since Fiona Apple’s Fetch the Bolt Cutters
By Elena Hernandez
In April 2020, Fiona Apple released her fifth studio album Fetch the Bolt Cutters. It was Apple’s first release in seven years, and we were in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, amidst all the chaos, the record and its themes were quite fitting as they dealt with confinement, isolation, and breaking free from oppression. According to Apple, its title is a reference to a television show scene. In it, a sex-crimes investigator, in response to finding a locked door with a tortured girl on the other side, yells out the phrase. Apple said herself its core message is to “fetch the f*cking bolt cutters and get yourself out of the situation you’re in.” It was largely recorded at Apple’s home, and the software program GarageBand was used for much of its creation. Apple examines a multitude of taboo topics within its 13 tracks, such as her relationship with other women, bullying, sexual assault, and depression. Despite the serious subject matter, it’s been referred to as her “most humorous album” and is ultimately defined by its unconventional percussion rooted in experimentation.
It begins with the powerful ballad that is “I Want You to Love Me”. In it, she encourages the listener to use her art: “Blast the music/ Bang it, bite it, bruise it.” She declares she is “the woman who wants you to win,” and sings, “While I’m in this body/ I want somebody to want, and I want what I want.” The following two tracks, “Shameika” and the titular “Fetch the Bolt Cutters”, both detail Apple’s experience with bullying and ostracization. The former was inspired by a real girl of the same name whom Apple once knew in middle school. She told the bullied Apple, “Why are you trying to sit with those girls? You have potential,” a quote that would one day become the song’s chorus (“Shameika said I have potential”).
In the latter track, Apple describes the isolation that comes with being the “weird” kid in school. She details her defenses against her bullies: “I used to march down…slapping my leg with a riding crop/ Thinking it made me come off so tough/ I didn’t smile…I wasn’t afraid of the bullies”. Ultimately though, these mechanisms never made it easier and she admits sometimes they “just made the bullies worse.” She confides in us, “The cool kids voted to get rid of me/ I’m ashamed of what it did to me/ What I let get done/ It stole my fun.” At one point, she weakly sings, “I got the idea I wasn’t real,” driving home the idea of bullying as a form of dehumanization.
When speaking about “Under the Table” and the dinner that inspired its writing in an interview with NPR, Apple said, “There was a prominent figure of a streaming service [there]. They were kicking me under the table with their eyes…a couple people said some things that I had some things to say back to.” The fifth track is “Relay”. Its chorus, “Evil is a relay sport/ When the one who’s burned/ Turns to pass the torch,” was the first set of lyrics Apple wrote for the song when she was fifteen. Apple said to Genius, “When the person who [burned] you doesn’t acknowledge it…It turns into you not knowing what to do with it. Then you just put it on somebody else.” She related this to an assault she experienced at age 12.
“Newspaper” and “Ladies” are a pair, and both tracks “[shine] a harsh spotlight on the way women are casually and cruelly pitted against each other in the game of love.” In the former, she states, “I wonder what lies he’s telling you about me/ To make sure that we’ll never be friends. The latter of the two is my favorite track from the record, possibly even from Apple’s discography. In it, she repeats throughout, “Ladies, ladies, ladies,” as if chastizing us. She sings of a revolving door “that keeps turning out more and more good women like you/ Yet another woman to whom I won’t get through,” embodying the frustration that comes with “not being able to evoke empathy in other women” who are doomed to become another “crazy ex.”
Fetch the Bolt Cutters was met with universal acclaim and has been referred to as “an instant classic,” “a masterpiece,” and “Apple’s best work to date.” It was the first record since Kanye West’s My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010) to earn a perfect score from Pitchfork. It currently resides on Metacritic as the second-highest rated album on the site. Apple has not released any new music since
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