Marina and the Diamonds - The Family Jewels

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The latest in a long line of new Kate Bushes, Greek/Welsh loony tune Marina Diamandis arrives in a fair blitz of hype, but this debut album is a charmless affair which mistakes self-aggrandising for personality and synth-pop rip-offs for musical invention. Theatrical pop clichés abound, and Diamandis has a rather distasteful habit of talking herself up in the third person at the expense of her audience. Songs about getting signed, drinking champagne and going to America are hardly penetrating the human condition, or even much fun, and Diamandis’s histrionic vocals undermine the occasional nice musical idea she stumbles across.