MARINA - Love + Fear (Acoustic) (2019) Hi Res

LOVE+FEAR is an album set split into two eight-song collections and lands as MARINA'S fourth full-length record since she released her critically-acclaimed third album, FROOT, in 2015. LOVE+FEAR are both lush, vibrant and powerful representations of the two main emotional driving forces behind human responses. LOVE is filled with a longing to enjoy life and a desire to unite and empower, while FEAR sees MARINA delve into matters of purpose and insecurity, also touching on conversations surrounding gender inequality and more broadly, the abuse of power. LOVE+FEAR are declamations that showcase these polarising sides of human nature.

"Shedding the "and the Diamonds" appendage of her stage name, Welsh pop maven Marina emerged from a self-imposed four-year absence to unveil a revitalized approach on her fourth album, Love + Fear. Stepping into the spotlight without the protection of her former moniker, she reveals a renewed confidence and tempered optimism, shedding some of the quirkiness and cheek of her early efforts, while moving past 2015's lackluster Froot. Following the difficult promotion of that album, Marina was worn out and considered quitting music. She retreated to recalculate life, studying developmental psychology a process she describes in "Handmade Heaven" and shedding the Diamonds to be herself. Alongside producers Joel Little, OzGo, Sam de Jong, and others, she crafted a double-album concept presented as complementary sides reflecting the two base emotions (according to psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross).

Kicking off the album with Love, Marina embraces optimism and peace with joyous dance-pop cuts and feel-good anthems packed with enough lyrical life mantras to fill a gallery's worth of affirmative self-help posters. Even on existential ruminations "To Be Human" and "End of the Earth," the purity of Marina's wonder helps pull some clunky "We Are the World"-esque lyrics from drowning in corny sentimentality. Most of the album's standouts reside in this first half, such as the shimmering "Handmade Heaven" and the pulsing "Superstar." Marina's irresistible Latin-kissed hit "Baby" a collaboration with Clean Bandit and Luis Fonsi slides comfortably into the mix, while the insightful "Enjoy Your Life" empowers with a motivating message that finds Marina sharing her positive headspace with listeners who might need this aural pep talk.

Hopping over to Fear, she delves deeper into the troubled thoughts and anxieties that bubbled beneath Love's sparkling surface. "Believe in Love" sounds like a Reputation-era Taylor Swift song, a bittersweet heartbreaker that pairs twinkling piano and a mid-tempo beat with the sentiment that "losing you is what I'm afraid of." "Life Is Strange" prolongs the inner turmoil as Marina admits "[I] don't know what I'm doing with my life" before concluding "all we know is life is strange" with quirky production that echoes her Family Jewels sound. These songs are a bit lyrically heavy for pop, but they remain catchy enough to dance and groove through the gloom, especially on the Broods-featuring "Emotional Machine," a throbbing club track that eschews the rest of this half's by-the-numbers approach (which falls somewhere between Swift and Ellie Goulding). By the time Marina reaches her big cathartic moment on album closer "Soft to be Strong," she's realized "when love is lost, it's only fear in disguise" and resolves that "love has to be soft to be strong." As the first offering of a new stage in her career, Love + Fear not only reveals its creator as newly hopeful, but it also gives hope that future efforts might be carved in a similar fashion. Marina's Electra heart still beats, it's just pumping smoother and with a confidence born from a renewed and mature perspective."