The Family Jewels LP

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.”