MARINA - Electra Heart: The Platinum Blonde Edition (not Album #6)

Deluxe edition vinyl that is somehow £37 or $32- ridiculous!

Anyway, I got excited as fuck and then realised the tracklisting misses out Radioactive, Sex Yeah and other bits when there’s plenty of room.

Disappointing.
 
Sheena said:
Deluxe edition vinyl that is somehow £37 or $32- ridiculous!

Anyway, I got excited as fuck and then realised the tracklisting misses out Radioactive, Sex Yeah and other bits when there’s plenty of room.

Disappointing.
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How is that in any way deluxe then :D
 
It's an improvement on the previous vinyl editions insofar as it includes "Living Dead" which was weirdly swapped out in favour of "Sex Yeah" but for that money, I'd have gone to 3 discs, run it at 45, included the original 16 track CD and added "How To Be A Heartbreaker" and "EVOL" ("Electra Heart" is a pissweak interlude of a thing).
 


I'm not saying she is LYING but it doesn't look like those four sides are at capacity to me.
 
Given that it's quite a loud, bass-heavy album, there will be limitations. You probably could fit a few more tracks on, tho'. There was deffo room for Radioactive on side 4.
 
No fucking way you can’t have more songs on that. Or, make it 3 discs. It would still sell.
 
Sheena said:
No fucking way you can’t have more songs on that. Or, make it 3 discs. It would still sell.
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Oh you could - but fidelity and dynamic range starts to suffer at a certain point. But, as I said above, I'd have gone to 3 records and put the whole lot at 45rpm - 13-15 minutes per side gives you room for all 19-20 songs from the era.
 
I will buy this. in a big obsessional phase with Electra Heart right now. I feel I did it dirty...
 
the campaign for this album was such a DISASTER!

Primadonna, allegedly the lead single, came out in March 2012 but she'd already been releasing drips and drops since August 2011 (!). Radioactive was a top 30 hit and they shunted it to bonus status. the arrogance! How to Be a Heartbreaker should've been the quick follow-up to Primadonna, but somehow was only an iTunes bonus track? on top of all that, she'd just made her name with The Family Jewels and then came back and immediately stepped into this satirical alias so I can imagine a lot of the GP were a bit: WTF is an electra heart?

I actually think with a smoother (shorter) campaign that went Radioactive - Primadonna - album + How to Be a Heartbreaker - Bubblegum Bitch - Power & Control / Teen Idle, this could've been a massive commercial success. musically everything was there, but the marketing was ludicrous.

anyway, glad it's getting its flowers now :eyes:
 
I always remember her tweeting something like

"The next single is How to be a Heartbreaker!..... no, I don't know what's going on either :/" so I think she was fully aware of how much of a shambles it was. It must be hard seeing your work be treated like crap by someone who had no idea what they were doing.
 
It was a shambles. Part of the problem was that she gave away the ending: "Fear & Loathing" wasn't part 1, it was the ending...after all the characters (the homewrecker, the primadonna, the bubblegum bitch, the idle teen etc etc) came the real Marina ("I've lived a lot of different lives..."). However, the major problem was the wider record buying public not connecting with "Radioactive". Suddenly, the sly wink haha isn't the pop business silly stuff didn't come off. It felt so slight next to TFJ and indeed, next to Fear and Loathing.

The record company fucked up "HTBAH" - that was a great song and the label didn't know what to do with her at the time and ended up chucking it out a good 6 weeks after everyone had downloaded it from somewhere cheeky.

At this remove, it matters a lot less because the (wider) album does contain some of her very best songs. I dunno who gave "Hypocrates" the green light instead of "Buy The Stars" or "E.V.O.L." but, well...it's all just out there now isn't it?

"Dear diary, we fell apart, welcome to the life of...ELECTRA HEART" is one of the greatest track one side one moments in the history of everything.
 
Tisch said:
I always remember her tweeting something like

"The next single is How to be a Heartbreaker!..... no, I don't know what's going on either :/" so I think she was fully aware of how much of a shambles it was. It must be hard seeing your work be treated like crap by someone who had no idea what they were doing.
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You posted while I was still typing - you're right. But she also said something about having "bankrupted" 679 so there's clearly behind the scenes tea to be spilled.
 
octophone said:
At this remove, it matters a lot less because the (wider) album does contain some of her very best songs. I dunno who gave "Hypocrates" the green light instead of "Buy The Stars" or "E.V.O.L." but, well...it's all just out there now isn't it?
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it may be an outlier on Electra Heart but Hypocrates is a fantastic, really gorgeous song. I love it a lot. and I think it helps the album breathe to have a moment of sincerity and a song that's more a simple, sunny guitar-pop arrangement.
 
Jark said:
it may be an outlier on Electra Heart but Hypocrates is a fantastic, really gorgeous song. I love it a lot. and I think it helps the album breathe to have a moment of sincerity and a song that's more a simple, sunny guitar-pop arrangement.
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Perhaps but that makes it badly placed on the album - it would be better after "Living Dead", a wee breathing space before we get plunged into the absolute abyss of (the still magnificent) Teen Idle.
 
Wasn’t How to be a Heartbreaker recorded for the US release? It wasn’t a traditional bonus track in the UK, was it? It was included on a reissue of the album but they didn’t do anything with it. It was wasted as a single- even she didn’t know it had come out and had they handled it properly with a proper reissue campaign, it would have surely given her the hit she needed.
 
It all smacks of an aborted reissue attempt.

But yes, Radioactive’s relative failure was the real issue with the whole project.
 
Sheena said:
Wasn’t How to be a Heartbreaker recorded for the US release? It wasn’t a traditional bonus track in the UK, was it? It was included on a reissue of the album but they didn’t do anything with it. It was wasted as a single- even she didn’t know it had come out and had they handled it properly with a proper reissue campaign, it would have surely given her the hit she needed.
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Correct - it first appeared on the US edition of the album which was released 2 or 3 months after the UK release. IIRC, there was set to be a different 'deluxe' later on but that was scrapped because the sales didn't justify it. I assume EVOL would have been part of that as well. There was also some 60 second thing called "The Archetypes" which has never appeared anywhere and seems to have been nothing but a YouTube trailer for the album.
 
OUT NOW!



first time hearing EVOL and Electra Heart. EVOL is a banger! Electra Heart probably should've been the intro on the main album, I wonder why it didn't make it.
 
I'm sure E.V.O.L. was given away for nowt at first. It is indeed a banger and a headscratcher why it isn't on the album.

Also - still no Jealousy? No Scab & Plaster? No Miss Y? C'mon Maz, open the cupboard just a teeny bit for us, eh?
 
ok i've been hammering this all weekend so ready to RATE!

10 Bubblegum BITCH
11 Primadonna
08 Lies
08 Homewrecker
08.5 Starring Role
08 The State of Dreaming
10 Power & Control
08 Living Dead
11 Teen Idle
10 Valley of the Dolls
10 Hypocrates
09 Fear & Loathing

10 How to Be a Heartbreaker
09.5 Radioactive
08 Sex Yeah
09 Buy the Stars
08.5 Lonely Hearts Club
07.5 EVOL
07 Electra Heart

9.00 :disco: kween of concepts and quality control!!!
 
Ok so queen is ten years young today and I’ve just had a massive drama queen moment to Starring Role

@Jark we need an anniversary sync
 
Suedey said:
It ALMOST feels like A JOKE :(
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her delivery of this line is absolutely everything. Starring Role has been creeping up on me. the middle 8 when it briefly becomes a 90s alt rock chick anthem is fucking incredible.
 
Jark said:
her delivery of this line is absolutely everything. Starring Role has been creeping up on me. the middle 8 when it briefly becomes a 90s alt rock chick anthem is fucking incredible.
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The way she almost criES “joke” oh queen plz I can’t breathe 🧘
 
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