Marina and the Diamonds, Leeds Metropolitan University

Marina and the Diamonds

May 31, 2010

Upscaled from the modest Cockpit to the more accomodating Leeds Met, Marina and the Diamonds return to Yorkshire on the back of some pleasing album sales and a pair of heavily-playlisted singles. Her ascent to the aisles of Tesco’s has been an elongated one, but hardly hindered by the recent victories of a more successful, yet similiarly kooky female solo-singer also masquearading under a band name.

Marina enters onto the stage donning a characteristic pair of gigantic red heart-shaped glasses and her now familiar cheerleader attire, shadow-boxing and bouncing her way through album track and well-chosen opener, ‘Girls.’ Only having the one album’s worth of material, aside from the appearance of b-side ‘Seventeen’ and a stark, yet unmoving cover of ‘Starstrukk’ by 3OH!3, means that at times the setlist comes across as simply the album via a shuffle function, lacking the narrative and drama of the LP. Marina’s often-criticised yelps and other vocal frolics are in full throttle tonight, arguably even more testing when accompanied by visual portrayals of mock-shock, and most lyrics actually being acted out to some degree. It’s all very theatrical, but it doesn’t half throw her sincerity into question.

Despite the absurd fashion statements, self-help Whitneyisms (“Always follow your dreams!”), and the ruthless drive and ambition (“Don’t do love/ Don’t do friends/ I’m only after success”) there’s no real denying the power of the pop hooks and inventive instrumentation, and Marina delivers melodies with all the confidence of someone generally fulfilling the dual demands of acccessiblity and credibility rather well. ‘Obessions’ remains timeless, and ‘I Am Not A Robot’ and ‘Hollywood’ are devoured by the audience. There’s enough sensitivity and humour on display to defend most allegations of depthlessness, and the closing ‘Mowgli’s Road’ (still arguably her finest 3 minutes) is as much of a bouncy, euphoric romp as on record.

It remains to be seen whether there is any true longevity in Marina’s armour, and critics have noted a certain amount of confused clutter within her musical style, but it would be wrong to write Marina and the Diamonds off just yet. It’s just that the self-centredness (although more than a hint of irony is detected) and the slight lack of clear direction that makes the proposition difficult to love, but easy to admire and respect.

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