In 2012, Marina Diamandis was poised to become a star. Working with top producers like Stargate, Rick Nowels and Diplo, she had the potential to rise and be an international sensation with her sophomore LP, “Electra Heart.” Diamandis created an alter ego for the concept album to distill the United States teen internet culture of the early 2010s, pairing hyper-feminine images with darker material. Thus emerged Electra Heart, a blonde bombshell sporting a heart-shaped freckle on her cheek and pastel coquettish dresses. Diamandis maintained this look throughout the album’s entire promotional campaign.
Diamandis’s vision for “Electra Heart” involved and expanded typical female archetypes: homewreckers, suburban housewives, melodramatic teenagers and mascara-streaked beauty queens. The writing was effective but often simple, lacking the authentic personality that made her debut album, “The Family Jewels,” so endearing. Her lyrics discussed the fickle nature of young love, depression and anxiety, late-stage capitalism and womanhood. The production mixed synth-pop and EDM, leaning into the 2010s maximalism of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry. The album’s highlight was the brooding “Teen Idle,” where our narrator mourned her wasted youth and longed for a dream that does not exist.
The album earned a 57/100 on Metacritic, indicating mixed to average reviews. Clash gave the album a 1/10, claiming “Electra Heart” was an “ingloriously languid” sign of Marina’s downfall, symbolizing a final nail in the coffin of her burgeoning musical career. Priya Elan of NME called it a failure, rating the album a 5/10. Critics also questioned — and disliked — Diamandis’s decision to employ an alter ego. Her 2010 debut, “The Family Jewels,” was an unconventional indie pop/rock effort that demonstrated authenticity and quirkiness. Comparing that album to “Electra Heart,” Laura Snapes wrote for “Pitchfork” in a 5.9/10 review that Diamandis’ newest work lacked the personality or distinct vocal tones of her first work. The sanitized sonic and lyrical approach to “Electra Heart” caused critics to question if Diamandis prioritized mainstream success over musical innovation. Snapes also questioned if the references to philosophy and mythology imbued within “Electra Heart” were hollow attempts to add depth where it did not exist. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian opined that Diamandis should have embraced the distinct style of her debut and dispensed with the alter ego.
Despite critical negativity, the album fared well commercially. It debuted at #1 on the UK albums chart, with singles “Primadonna” and “Radioactive” hitting the Top 40. “Electra Heart” also topped the charts in Ireland and Scotland while earning Top 40 placements in the United States and Australia. “Electra Heart” went on to be certified Gold in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In 2021, “Bubblegum Bitch” went viral on TikTok, evincing the album’s staying power in the collective social media consciousness.
In a 2020 livestream, Diamandis addressed the album’s critical reception, saying the album was not meant to be understood by the adults who panned it but by the teenagers in her audience. It was an astute observation; because she spoke to a niche and burgeoning youth culture, the concept confused many adult music journalists. Additionally, the lore of “Electra Heart” may have been too vast at the time; her attempts to explain the concept failed as the message seemed impossible to articulate coherently.
Regardless, there’s something endlessly compelling about “Electra Heart.” When I first heard the album in middle school, it was the upbeat and hook-laden tracks that caught my attention. Years later, I came to appreciate the breadth of Diamandis’s ambition and study of internet culture. Eventually, critics did too.
In 2022, Diamandis re-issued the record for its tenth anniversary. Clash reflected on their previous review as unnecessarily cruel, concluding that her music was forward-thinking music, remaining fresh and exciting even ten years after release. Stereogum also positively profiled the album for its anniversary, declaring it a symbol of womanhood, particularly poignant in a time of internet-laden late-stage capitalism. Rolling Stones ranked the LP among the 50 best concept albums of all time.
On Aug. 8th, 2013, the character of Electra Heart was reportedly “found dead,” the victim of an apparent suicide. Diamandis eulogized the fallen star on her Tumblr, later admitting that she, in fact, murdered the alter ego with sleeping pills. Even in death, the enduring popularity and cultural significance of “Electra Heart” persist as a reminder of a bygone internet era and as a playbook for smart, high-concept pop.
