Remember when Marina & the Diamonds was like, THE "it girl" of ATRL for a few weeks? That bandwagon crashed so quickly! The reason it crashed is because her album is sad & depressing for the most part. "Hypocrates" (which I think is a typo of "hypocrites") continues the sadness lyrically, with Marina being bitter at some ex-boyfriend (calls him hypocritical, overly-cynical, etc...), but the instrumental is very light, happy, and poppy. That's why it's my favorite from the album. The chorus is so hooky ("Who-oooo are you-oooo to tell me, tell me / Who-oooo to-oooo, to be, to be?"). It has a nice pop-rock vibe, but doesn't come off horrible or cheesy like most pop-rock. The final chorus/outro with the additional background vocals is so nice, so pleasant; the harmonizing is great. Get back to making consistently good music, Marina; I really want to like you!
Madonnas his anger when he sees Emeli Sande on my list... But come on, how can you not love this song? Emeli is a snooze for the most part, but this song has so much power, so much energy. It's electrifying with that big-ass beat that just pounds into your eardrums. "Next to meeeeee, ooo-hoooo." So many gospel influences in this great pop song. I'm not sure if this song is about Jesus, or if Emeli is even religious, but the gospel sound makes me think it's about Jesus. Or maybe it's just about her boyfriend. Apparently this got released in the US as her first single, but it never went anywhere. I think if they took the time to properly promote this, it could be an Adele-like hit!
Rihanna her indie power. Who the hell is Mikky Ekko? How did Rihanna find him? This song is SOLID. Apparently it's going to be a single, so it will be interesting to see how it performs. Rihanna's never done a song like this, so it was a bit of a shock when I heard it for the first time. So simplistic and so beautiful, this song. Rihanna & Mikky do well together. The best part is obviously the bridge, where they sing, "Funny you're the broken one, but I'm the only one who needed saving / 'Cause when you never see the light, it's hard to know which one of us is caving." Rihanna's vocal is strong on this track; she holds that one note towards the end for a while. The live performances of this song have been great.
You're having about as much success as she's had on The Voice.
