The Family Jewels

Marina & the Diamonds - The Family Jewels
Critic Score
Based on 22 reviews
2010 Ratings: #578 / 924
User Score
2010 Rank: #75
Liked by 193 people
Sign In to rate and review

CRITIC REVIEWS

90
NME
Frankly, with a debut this astonishing, we think the time for Marina to stop worrying is here.
90
DIY
Remarkably consistent, and at times quite affecting, this album lives up to all the hype. However Marina may feel about where she is now, we wouldn’t have it any other way.
84
Billboard
On her debut album, "The Family Jewels," Diamandis backs up her bark with a promising bite.
80
Evening Standard
This is straightforward fun music, carefully crafted and delivered with verve and panache.
80
The Irish Times
Diamandis reveals such a playful, interesting approach to song structure that you can only view this album as the opening chapter in a very, very promising career.
80
Q Magazine
Her debut skips frrom glam-disco and bubblegum punk, to quavering piano laments and cabaret ditties. All the while, her imaginative reach is complemented by a winning pop savviness.
80
The Telegraph
Her arch, clever debut may be too spiky and brash to be really lovable, but, if Marina has her way, you’ll probably find yourself singing along whether you like it or not.
80
God Is in the TV

Ellie Goulding may have beaten her to the early accolades of 2010 but with The Family Jewels, Marina has produced a debut album so striking and honest it makes Lights look like second rate sixth form musings in comparison.

80
Sputnikmusic
There is a savvy depth evident throughout ‘The Family Jewels’ which simply cannot be ignored; fun, serious, poppy and unorthodox, it is an album full of contradictions, but one which rarely fails to entertain.
80
AllMusic
Diamandis earns a large number of brownie points for owning a unified sound on her album that invests itself in every track, sparing no album cut for the sake of quantity over quality.
70
The Fly
The record is hugely entertaining; a joyful romp through quirky pop-ville in fact. She’s no Kate Bush, who she’s relentlessly compared to, but then really, who is?
70
SPIN
Ravishing yet famished for attention, this overachiever would be bloody irritating if she didn’t demonstrate a savvy command of pop hooks.
70
musicOMH

The Family Jewels isn’t the classic debut album that her early singles suggested was on the way, but there’s enough promise here to carry her through the hype.

60
Clash
Marina describes the album as “intricately produced” and that’s where the problem lies. Such attention to detail leaves some of the songs feeling pretty sterile and, as a result, it’s a frustrating listen.
60
The Guardian
There's no doubting that Marina Diamandis can write great pop songs. It's the rest of the package that's the problem.
60
Mojo

A quirky, theatrical record that's full of pomp and self-importance, The Family Jewels is never less than exciting, but it does try a little too hate to be zany.

60
PopMatters
Although there is definitely musical colour here, Marina’s vocal delivery and attitude has a tendency to overshadow the music, which is often melodically inventive, but we are rarely given the chance to realise this.
50
A.V. Club
Hailing from the same school of self-aware artifice as Lady Gaga and Little Boots, Marina Diamandis’ debut as Marina And The Diamonds benefits—and suffers—from the same irony-laden emptiness.
50
Drowned in Sound

The Family Jewels seems to be symptomatic of a broader trend at the moment to demand our female artists be both credible and commercial at the expense of achieving anything great in either camp.

40
No Ripcord
Unfortunately, her constant insistence on being so ham-fistedly quirky and zany soon becomes wearing, and simultaneously rescues and spoils the whole album.
40
Uncut
All round it makes for a slightly uncomfortable listen.
20
The Independent
It's the relentless attention-seeking of her music that's most enervating, however, its infantile aspects exacerbated by Marina's high-register vocal tic in "I Am Not a Robot" and her whistling in "Mowgli's Road", both exercises in the kind of jolly, enthusiastic tedium favoured by stage-school musicals.
GersonAOTY
83

In my opinion Marina's best album, The Family Jewels is the embodiment of everything the artist represents like her eccentricity, unusual and fun productions and unique timbre. Marina identifies the lyrical themes on the album as "the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family and female sexuality", bringing completely provocative and sincere subjects to the table.

I think The Family Jewels it's a really diverse album stylistically speaking because Marina's such a ... read more

fakeplasticrose
85

shut up.

But yeah seriously, I've kind of fallen back in love with this. If you put the slight fake wokeness and occasionally cringy lyrics aside, this is a fun pop album and who ever said an album needs to be more than that to be great?

jewelbreak
80

MARINA’s debut “The Family Jewels” is so genuine and creative, she came with her own sonority and style singing about her insecurities, criticizing the world issues, the capitalism tendencies with ironic verses like “TV told me how to feel, now real life has no appeal”, and created a full persona. Love this album so much and i think her next album “Ancient Dreams in a modern Land” will follow this lineup, “Froot”’s sonority, in a much ... read more

wyvey
45

i don’t have any major likes or dislikes around this album. mowgli’s road, the outsider and rootless are definitely the best in the album but they in themselves are only okay.

95

no skips.

thz
85

One of, if not my favourite album of all time, from my favourite artist of all time, with only one truly forgettable song in my opinion (Guilty) while it's not her most accomplished record musically, I kinda don't really care about that all that much tbh. Most if not all the songs on there are good to great, and for the special place this album holds in my life, this will forever be the GOAT

Purchasing The Family Jewels from Amazon helps support Album of the Year. Or consider a donation?
Become a Donor
Donor badge, no ads + more benefits.
Advertisement

Track List

1Are You Satisfied?
3:18
89
2Shampain
3:09
86
3I Am Not a Robot
3:32
87
4Girls
3:26
81
5Mowgli's Road
3:10
85
6Obsessions
3:28
87
7Hollywood
3:24
86
8The Outsider
3:14
82
9Hermit the Frog
3:33
85
10Oh No!
3:00
91
11Rootless
3:28
77
12Numb
4:14
85
13Guilty
3:39
78
Total Length: 44 minutes

Year End Lists

#33/NME
#48/The Line of Best Fit
Sign in to comment
6mo
10mo
12mo
2y
3y