"Teen Idle (Acoustic)" by Marina and the Diamonds

Marina Diamandis

Hey, guys! It's Lindsey here for my Tuesday review. I apologize in advance if this post is poorly written or oddly short. I currently feel like someone smacked me upside the head with a brick, so bear with me. 

I became acquainted with the Welsh/Greek artist known as "Marina and the Diamonds" when I first downloaded her single "I Am Not a Robot" on iTunes for free. This happened sometime during my freshman year of high school, and I can remember listening to it for the first time as my father drove my sister and I back home after a trip to Morro Bay. I thought her voice was very strange and unlike that of any other female artist I had ever listened to. Once I got home, I downloaded some of her other songs (like "Mowgli's Road" and "Oh no!") and spent quite some time listening to her odd, artsy songs. When I listened to her back then, she still looked like this:

In 2012, she reinvented herself, both in her looks and in her music. She released a new album called Electra Heart, an album titled after the character she plays throughout the album. She is quoted as saying:

"Electra Heart is the antithesis of everything that I stand for. And the point of introducing her and building a whole concept around her is that she stands for the corrupt side of American ideology, and basically that's the corruption of yourself."

Her new identity of Electra Heart came with blonde hair and a glamorous yet dark attitude. She does, as she said, embody the darkness and corruption that can be created by the American ideology and many of her songs ("Teen Idle", for instance) show this. For her most recent work, I prefer the acoustic versions because they tend to feel more raw and contain more emotion. Sometimes I feel like the lyrics of the song can't be felt as profoundly when put with a poppy beat.

Anyways, here is the song and the lyrics! I've yet to find a version of this song better than this live performance from the London Tabernacle.

Lyrics:

I wanna be a bottle blonde

I don't know why but I feel conned

I wanna be an idle teen

I wish I hadn't been so clean

I wanna stay inside all die

I want the world to go away

I want blood, guts, and chocolate cake

I wanna be a real fake

[Chorus]

Yeah, I wish I'd been, I wish I'd been a teen, teen idle

Wish I'd been a prom queen fighting for the title

Instead of being sixteen and burning up a Bible

Feeling super, super, super suicidal

The wasted years, the wasted youth

The pretty lies, the ugly truth

And the day has come where I have died

Only to find I've come alive

I wanna be a virgin pure

A 21st century whore

I wan't back my virginity

So I can feel infinity

I wanna drink until I ache

I wanna make a big mistake

I want blood, guts, and angel cake

I'm gonna puke it anyway

[Chorus]

Oh, I wish I wasn't such a narcissist

I wish I didn't really kiss the mirror when I'm on my own

Oh god, I'm gonna die alone

Adolescence didn't make sense

A little loss of innocence

The ugly years of being a fool

Ain't youth meant to be beautiful

[Chorus]

Rating: 4 RECORDS

Information: iTunes Bio, Wikipedia - Marina the and Diamonds

Photos: Style.com, Fanart.tv