NEW YORK, NY (Top40 Charts/ Atlantic Records) - Atlantic Records/Chop Shop has announced the upcoming release of "THE FAMILY JEWELS," the dazzling debut album from
Marina & The Diamonds which made a stunning chart debut this week at No 5 in the U.K. The collection will arrive stateside on May 25th.
"THE FAMILY JEWELS" will be heralded by "THE AMERICAN JEWELS EP," a three-track EP featuring the album tracks "I Am Not A Robot" and "Obsessions," alongside the exclusive "I Am Not a Robot Flex'd Rework (Passion Pit Remix)." "THE AMERICAN JEWELS" will be available at all DSPs on March 23rd.
Marina & The Diamonds - the nom de musique of Marina Diamandis - has quickly become a sensation in the UK, where Diamandis was recently named the No 2 artist on the BBC's ever-prescient "Sound of 2010" ranking. Dividing her time between her birthplace of Abergavenny in rural Wales, London and later her father's traditional family home in Greece, Diamandis developed a truly idiosyncratic aesthetic, equal parts self-deprecating songstress, unabashedly intimate lyricist, and passionate pop star-in-waiting. A sequence of '09 singles and EPs - released on the influential UK indie label, Neon Gold (Passion Pit, Ellie Goulding, Your Twenties) - earned her a steady stream of admirers, both public and in the press, all in thrall to Marina's extraordinarily prodigious talent.
Diamandis will make her US live debut with a series of much anticipated performances, beginning March 14th at Brooklyn's The Bell House and March 15th at New York City's Le Poisson Rouge. Marina & The Diamonds will then head to Austin, Texas for the annual South By Southwest (SXSW) festival. Among the scheduled events are the Neon Gold showcase at Lambert's on Thursday, March 18th and the all-star Chop Shop/Atlantic Records party, slated for Saturday, March 20th at Brush Square Park.
What's more, Marina & The Diamonds will be among the artists appearing on this summer's 2010 Lilith Tour, joining a remarkable line-up that includes Sarah MacLachlan, Norah Jones, Mary J. Blige, Loretta Lynn, Tegan & Sara, Janelle Mona'e, Colbie Caillat, and many others. Full tour details will be unveiled shortly.
Highlighted by the UK Top 20 hit single, "Hollywood," "THE FAMILY JEWELS" is proving an early contender for 2010's most distinctive debut. Songs like the dramatic "Oh No!" (produced by Greg Kurstin of The Bird And The Bee), "Obsessions" and the boldly ambitious "Mowgli's Road" see Marina gleefully melding the theatrically lavish vocal and orchestral flourishes of Kate Bush with the wonderful pop eccentricity of everyone from Sparks to the Scissor Sisters.
"Astonishing," declared NME of "THE FAMILY JEWELS" in its nine-out-of-10 rave. "Raining down on the ears like an explosion of sonic confetti, ('Hollywood') boasts a chorus so killer it should probably be investigated by the police." The Times' Pete Paphides awarded the album four-out-of-five stars, praising it for "parachuting you into the world of a singer who wants your attention but hates compartmentalization." The Telegraph decreed "THE FAMILY JEWELS" an "arch, clever debut," hailing Marina for having "a larger-than-life quality, coming on like a drama queen using her personal neuroses as a prism through which to view the world."
