Marina and the Diamonds- The Family Jewels & Ellie Goulding- Light

I have been anticipating this album for over 2 years now, I knew that when it finally arrived, it would be something pretty special and I believe that it has reached these expectations. You may be thinking, "oh no, not another female solo artists, this whole 'females taking over thing' is getting boring now." But let me assure you, this one's a special one. Not only do her songs clearly come from the heart but Marina Diamandis is a woman that's not fearful to speak her mind. Her songs are littered with her opinions on certain modern social issues and happenings as well as personal experiences. From the flamboyant vocal utterances to the electric violins, this album is shiny pop perfection that speaks for itself. I'm glad that Marina has put some polished up versions of some of her oldest songs such as 'Hermit the Frog' on as well as her new songs, for example 'Guilty', a song which shows her more vulnerable streak. Despite its nostalgic 70s/80s pop tint, this album is certainly an individual one, full of inspiring honesty, passion and intriguing individuality.
9/10





Now, this one's an interesting one and completely different to Marina's. Although I know that Ellie obviously started out by just writing acoustically with just her and her guitar, I expected it to contain an equal split of both up tempo songs with contagious beats and more mellow, down tempo songs, yet, it did not. It's a lot more relaxed than I expected it to be, beautifully so of course, I would not expect any less from the combined effort of Miss Goulding and Producer Starsmith. The fastest, more dancable songs are most certainly the two singles that have been released from it so far that have helped Goulding properly break into the more commercial music scene. The piano compliments the acoustic guitar well and it all works magically in terms of the musical side of things and Ellie's heart meltingly fragile lyrics slot into this well. I like the fact that Ellie, like Marina, means every word that she sings, when the lyrics of a song are evidently meaningful to the person singing them, the song is a lot more beautiful.
8.5/10


If you do one good thing this weekend, make sure that it's buying at least one of these albums, legally, these albums deserve all the credit that they can get.

Katie x