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So, I like certain aspects of this album.
I like the melodies and some of the song ideas, but I can't help but feel a lot of the style of this album is more 2009 than 2019. Nearly every song has an "oo oo oo" or "ah ah ah" or "ooioioieu" or repeating a couple words to close off the hook, and that truly only works well if it's in a couple tracks, and even then, if it's more of an accessory to the track than something the track needs in order to flow well. Marina falls way too hard on her do-re-mi's and lyrical repetition for the songs on this album.
One thing I notice a lot on Love + Fear is how Marina seems to have thrown lyrical creativity out the window. There's literally none of the depth she managed on prior albums. Considering "How To Be A Heartbreaker" is the least "Marina" song Marina has ever done, that thing could win an Oscar compared to all but one or two tracks on Love + Fear. There are a lot of moments in these songs that Marina feels like she's shoving words into the song to make the melody work. Lines like the closing line on the hook of "To Be Human" just feel out of place, like it's obvious Marina couldn't come up with something for those notes of the song, so she just went with a weak emphasis of what she's saying or uncomfortably drew out a syllable or two to fill the melody's notes.
Most of the songs feel disposable given Marina's prior songwriting, especially compared to the rampant symbolism and cryptic lyrics of Froot and the high-brow concept of Electra Heart. What's weird is that there are songs I'm thrilled to hear. "To Be Human", with some extra work on the lyrics, could easily be a staple of her discography. I LOVE the pre-chorus in "Superstar" and in "Karma" (I also love "Karma"'s chorus). And I think the pre-chorus lines in "Believe In Love" are among the best on this record, a well-worded acknowledgement of fault and difficulty in understanding what she can and can't, what she should and shouldn't be able to control. The chorus on "Believe In Love" is probably the simplest, but best use of the style Marina uses on the album. It's simple, to the point, effective. No attempt to say more, not trying to shove less into a melody too big for too few words.
Overall, I like the rhythm of this album. I loathe that the album lacks any big songs, tracks like "Froot" or "Hollywood" or "I Am Not A Robot", songs where Marina is really projecting and using her voice to power the song forward. This album is soft. It's honestly mushy. Not mushy in the sense that the lyrics are corny, but in the sense that it's auditorily corny for a Marina record. I can't bring myself to listen to tracks like "Emotional Machine" because I don't understand why they exist let alone why they make up so many of the 16 tracks on Love + Fear. Truly, I don't get why "Enjoy Your Life", "True", "End of the Earth", "You", "Emotional Machine", "Too Afraid", "No More Suckers", and "Soft To Be Strong" are even songs by Marina. They just recycle beats, synths, ideas and lyrics from other songs on this album that Marina did a far better job writing.
That really ends my good and bad things to say here. Froot set a high bar for Marina, and Love + Fear can't even hit half-way to the relatively low bar she set by comparison with her first album. Between The Family Jewels and Electra Heart, Marina significantly evolved. Between Electra Heart and Froot, Marina significantly matured as an artist again. Between Froot and Love + Fear? All I hear is a decent lyricist trying to make a generic pop album and literally making a record more generic than generic pop. I'm not sure what she aimed for here, but if it wasn't to write a bad joke, she missed the mark.
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