“Nothing is provocative anymore,” Marina Diamandis insists on Electra Heart, her second album as Marina and the Diamonds. That doesn’t mean this Welsh-Greek singer won’t attempt to surprise: After debuting to indie-scale success with 2010’s The Family Jewels, Diamandis supersized her sound (and her sense of sass) for Electra Heart, recruiting A-list hit-makers such as Dr. Luke, Benny Blanco and Stargate for songs that pepper high-gloss electropop beats with knowing pronouncements on the intersection of commerce and character. Here’s a record on which the punchy titles boil down some pretty big ideas: “Bubblegum Bitch,” “Primadonna,” “Homewrecker,” “How to Be a Heartbreaker.” On the latter, over a candy-coated Dr. Luke groove, Diamandis boasts, “We’ll get ’em falling for a stranger, a player?/?Singing, ‘I la-la-la-love you.’?”
Over the past few weeks, Marina and the Diamonds have opened a string of North American dates for Coldplay, but this week the band (which onstage includes five backing musicians) hits New York for a pair of headlining club shows, before rejoining Chris Martin & Co. in Europe. Has Diamandis picked up anything from her arena-pleasing tourmates? It’s hard to say: “I’ve only ever met them once,” she recently told The Sun in England. Either way, expect a performance that’s larger than her old life.—Mikael Wood