Music / Electra Heart

Wear your heart on your cheek, but never on your sleeve.

"I saw that album more as a musical; a sort of flamboyant, tongue-in-cheek, dark pop record, a pop opera, and humour was a very big component of it."

— Marina Diamandis on Electra Heart, via Irish Times

Electra Heart (2012) is the second studio album by Welsh Singer-Songwriter Marina Diamandis (then known by the Stage Name of Marina and the Diamonds). It was released on April 27, 2012, by 679 Artists and Atlantic Records.

A Concept Album highly cinematic in tone and presentation (with Marina's official YouTube channel releasing eleven short film clips for the album), it consists of electropop and dance-pop music, a distinct departure from her earlier projects. Lyrically, the album discusses topics of love and identity. Diamandis created the title character "Electra Heart" to represent female archetypes in popular American culture — the Housewife, the Beauty Queen, the Homewrecker, and the Idle Teen.

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Tracklist:

1. "Bubblegum Bitch" (2:34)
2. "Primadonna" (3:41)
3. "Lies" (3:46)
4. "Homewrecker" (3:22)
5. "Starring Role" (3:27)
6. "The State of Dreaming" (3:36)
7. "Power & Control" (3:46)
8. "Living Dead" (4:04)
9. "Teen Idle" (4:14)
10. "Valley of the Dolls" (4:13)
11. "Hypocrates" (4:01)
12. "Fear and Loathing" (6:07)

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:

13. "Radioactive" (3:47)
14. "Sex Yeah" (3:46)
15. "Lonely Hearts Club" (3:01)
16. "Buy the Stars" (4:47)

iTunes Deluxe Video Edition Bonus Track:

17. "How to Be a Heartbreaker" (3:41)

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Electra Heart provides examples of:

Miscellaneous

• Alter-Ego Acting: One of the major themes of "Electra Heart" is the Archetypes: Su-Barbie-A, Homewrecker, Primadonna, and Teen Idle. Marina assumes these personas throughout the album as she explore the negative aspects of each. The last track, "Fear and Loathing", discusses the trope the most, with lines like, "Got different people inside my head / I wonder which one that they like best."
• Ambition Is Evil: invokedWord of God says that "Electra" is her meditation on the negative effects of fame and fortune.
• Camp: As Marina herself has described the record, it's very flamboyant.
• Concept Album: Electra Heart is about different facets of the female psyche, told through the perspective of a lonely young woman (who is clearly seriously mentally ill and suicidal).
• Downer Ending: Electra Heart is Driven to Suicide.
• Eagleland: Commentary on archetypal ideas of women in the USA.
• Housewife: The so-named Housewife character. Exactly What It Says on the Tin and then some.
• Ironic Name: Electra Heart is a heartless bitch.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is Electra Heart. A Central Theme of the album is female core identity and archetypes.
• The Muse: Britney Spears inspired the Electra Heart project.
• Rich Bitch: Embraced in Electra Heart.

  "Electra Heart is based on the assumption that girls who are massive bitches rarely get hurt in love."

• Villain Protagonist: The titular character of Electra Heart is a self-admitted Alpha Bitch, Homewrecker, Primadonna, Heartbreaker, and in general a very unpleasant and cold person who gets what she wants out of people (love, sex, attention, and material things) and doesn't care about the repercussions.
• What the Hell Is That Accent?: Her British accent is still quite prominent across the album's tracks, and it's never clear where exactly in the USA any of her characters are meant to hail from.
• Woman Scorned: Most of Electra Heart, as she has mentioned in a few interviews that one of the main themes is rejection.

Tropes that apply to the music videos or short films

• The Casanova: Gender-Inverted Trope in "How To Be a Heartbreaker," per the title, of course.
• Three Minutes of Writhing: Parodied/Gender-Inverted Trope with the video for "How to Be a Heartbreaker". It's common to see music videos featuring a clothed male artist and scantily clad female dancers, but this video surrounds a clothed Marina with men in Speedos.

Tropes that apply to the songs

• Album Title Drop:
  • In "Bubblegum Bitch":
    Welcome to the life of Electra Heart!
  • In the music video series interlude "The Archetypes":
    Electra Heart, are you faux-real?
  • Lastly, in the send-off song and video released to mark the end of the era:
    I'm Electra, I'm Electra Heart.
• All Take and No Give: Electra Heart is the taker.
  • "Primadonna":
    When you give, I want more, more, more
  • "Bubblegum Bitch" is even worse:
    I'll chew you up and I'll spit you out
    'Cause that's what young love is all about
• Anti-Love Song: "Radioactive."
  Love is all I fear
  Ready to be let down
  Now I'm heading for a meltdown
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: "Teen Idle" has this line: "I want blood, guts, and chocolate cake." It is changed to "angel cake" later in the song, but the trope still stands.
• Badass Boast: "Bubblegum Bitch."
  I'll chew you up and I'll spit you out
  'Cause that's what young love is all about
  So pull me closer and kiss me hard
  I'm gonna pop your bubblegum heart.
• Break Up Song: "Lies" and "Homewrecker."
• The Casanova: Female version in both "Homewrecker" and "How To Be A Heartbreaker".
• Dark Reprise: The songs on Electra Heart aren't very lyrically upbeat to begin with, but the acoustic versions could be considered the Dark Reprise of the original ones. "Lies" is the best example of this, as the more upbeat pop version can be considered a kind of 'moving on' song, while the acoustic version sounds like hurt, bitterness, and ongoing agony.
• Dying Alone: Feared in "Teen Idle": "Oh God, I'm gonna die alone." Tragically a self-fulfilling prophecy by the final act.
• Evil Is Easy: "Homewrecker":
  The good are never easy, the easy never good.
• For the Evulz: "Homewrecker":
  They call me homewrecker, homewrecker, I broke a million hearts just for fun...

• Hypocrite: The subject of "Hypocrates".
  I know you only want to own me
  And that’s the kind of love you show me
  You tell me one thing and do another
  Keep all your secrets undercover.

• Love Martyr:
  • "Lies":
    I don't want to admit that we're not gonna fit
    No, I'm not the type that you like, why don't we just pretend?
  • "Starring Role":
    You don't love me
    Big fucking deal
    I'll never tell you how I feel...
• Lyrical Dissonance: Any of the more uptempo tracks ("Bubblegum Bitch", "Primadonna", "How to Be a Heartbreaker", "Radioactive") are lighter in music while hosting dark, ironic lyrics. "Living Dead" is a song about feeling dead inside, and the instrumental sounds like something you can dance to.
• Madonna-Whore Complex: Discussed in "Teen Idle". I wanna be a virgin pure, 21st century whore...
  It's like a formula that no one can refuse. I remember seeing an interview with Madonna in the '80s and she was talking about how everyone is so attracted to the whole virgin/whore complex. And that is exactly Britney — she mixed those elements so perfectly.
• Madness Mantra: "Lights, they blind me" has become the defining phrase of the Electra Heart era, the last video of which has Electra repeating the phrase over and over to herself until it's the last thing she says. Taken up to eleven on the horror scale when you realise she's essentially dying by this point.
• Narcissist: "Teen Idle."
  I wish I wasn't such a narcissist
  I wish I didn't really kiss
  The mirror when I'm on my own
• Never Be Hurt Again: "How to Be a Heartbreaker" has these dour lines:
  Girls, we do whatever it will take
  'Cause girls don't want, we don't want our hearts to break
  In two, so it's better to be fake
  Can't risk losing in love again, babe
• Never My Fault:
  • "Primadonna."
    You say that I'm kinda difficult
    But it's always someone else's fault
  • The subject of "Lies."
    You're too proud to say that you've made a mistake
    You're a coward 'til the end
• New Sound Album: A much more mainstream sound than The Family Jewels.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Su-Barbie-A threatens to stick her head in the oven, as Sylvia Plath eventually wound up doing. Plath also talked about the Electra complex.
• Non-Appearing Title: "Hypocrates".
• Obsession Song: "Radioactive" is mostly passive as she says she's "heading for a meltdown" because of her feelings, but there is a couple of aggressive lines thrown in as well ("I'm gonna leave you drowning until you reach for my hand").
• Playing the Victim Card: "Hypocrates".
  Yeah you played the martyr for so long
  That you can’t do anything wrong

• Precision F-Strike:
  • "Starring Role."
    You don't love me, big fucking deal
    I'll never tell you how I feel
  • "E.V.O.L"
    It only takes two lonely people
    To fuck love up and make it evil
    It only takes a drop of evil
    To fuck up two beautiful people
• Recap Episode: The music video for "Electra Heart", the final part of the music video series for the eponymous album. It also symbolizes how Electra's life went by before "dying" as Marina ended promotion at the same time for the album with a tweet saying "Goodbye, Electra Heart!".
• Rock Star Song: "Teen Idle," "Primadonna," etc.
• Self-Backing Vocalist: She harmonizes with herself in "Starring Role" and "Valley of the Dolls".
• Serial Homewrecker: The song "Homewrecker" is from the perspective of a woman who jets between relationships, breaking up her lovers' marriages in the process, before moving on to the next one and leaving the previous lover brokenhearted. She herself is a Broken Bird who doesn't think she'll ever find happiness in love.
• Shout-Out:
  • "Dear Diary" and "Soda Pop" by Britney Spears get a shout out in "Bubblegum Bitch".
  • In E.V.O.L, Marina mentions her Romeo — and how she wants to be a suicide blonde.
• Split Personality: A major theme on Electra Heart, especially:
  • "Fear and Loathing":
    I've lived a lot of different lives, been different people many times...
    Got different people inside my head, I wonder which one they like best...
  • "Valley of the Dolls":
    Living with identities that do not belong to me...
    Pick a personality for free
• Spoiled Brat: The lyrics in "Primadonna" sound like as if it where based off the thoughts of a Bratty Teenage Daughter with lots of cash and way too much popularity.

• Stepford Smiler: "Starring Role" ("You don't love me, big fucking deal / I'll never tell you how I feel"), "Lies" ("I just want it to be perfect / To believe it's all been worth the fight")... much of the album deals with repressing sadness in favor of a cushy suburban or glamorous, picture-perfect lifestyle. Fittingly, one of the Archetypes is the classic unhappy, buttoned-up '50s housewife.
• Take That!: "Sex Yeah" criticizes how women tend to be oversexualised by history and the media, and how it impedes women from embracing their sexuality as they want to.
• Unusual Euphemism: "Homewrecker" describes men's genitalia as "their six-inch rockets."

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I’m Electra, I’m Electra Heart
Only living, living in the dark
Lights, they blind me...

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