- FROOT is the third album from Welsh singer Marina and the Diamonds. It’s an atmospheric, sophisticated record that sees Marina Diamandis combining the pop hooks and electro beats she’s become known for, with a new found level of maturity and importantly, musical restraint.
Like previous records from Diamandis, Froot explores a wide expanse of themes through the eyes of an almost alter ego styled character constructed specifically for the album. Production-wise this album is a big step away from the fancy studio effects of her earlier work, but that’s not to say that production is not a huge part on the record. Ambient vocals and suspended sounds are heavily utilised throughout to great effect. Her moment’s of restraint are made all the more powerful because they’re nestled between the occasional foray into full blown pop, an element of her previous releases that has bled through into this latest record.
Opener Happy is a soft, acoustic track exploring the singer’s emergence from depression. In fact, all through the album Diamandis seems particularly obsessed with ideas of finality and death. The lyrics in Fear and Loathing such as "where I will belong/ When they blow me out" explicitly deals with some kind of existential crisis. Can’t Pin Me Down has a more empowering message about moving on and looking up at the end of a relationship, but the effect is let down by the heavy-handed application of vocal distortion.
Froot embraces a variety of genres from ethereal disco, shoegaze ballads and bouncy electro pop, but is grounded by Diamandis’ vocals. They anchor the record and allow you to become immersed in her alter-egos struggles and triumphs.

- Clare Armstrong.