tenderness 046

2015. The Shrine in LA. My dad and his girlfriend had just begrudgingly dropped my friends off in front of the venue. The style then for this specific concert were sparkly chokers, jelly sandals, and a-line skirts from American Apparel. I'd be a bit embarrassed except for the fact that most of my friends participated in this trend at some point or another.

My first concert was finally going to happen. Marina and the Diamonds with Charli XCX opening. Neither of them were very sell known widely. Charli had still not released anything beyond True Romance and Marina had accumulated a cult following in the form of sad teenagers with tumblr blogs with her releases of The Family Jewels and Electra Heart. Marina took the stage and played all the songs that we wanted to hear, her vocals and stage presence not exactly what one might think of when it comes to a pop star.

But that's exactly it. Marina was more interested on creating personas for her earlier projects. She created these characters for both herself and her audience to hold onto. Following Electra Heart she released Froot, a more disco inspired album where she began to shed the whole romanticized version of herself that she had created with her past two albums.

And now in 2019, four years after seeing her for the first time, she's started to release tracks for her fourth studio album. While the track I played today seems slightly reminiscent of the songs off Froot, her lyrics and presence on the song seem to yet again show another side of her complex journey as an artist.