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“‘Oh my God, you look just like Shakira! No, no–you’re Catherine Zeta!’ ‘Actually, my name’s Marina,’” she sang on “Hollywood,” the second single off of 2010′s The Family Jewels.

It’s been over two years since her debut, and Marina + The Diamonds is back with yet another identity crisis for her second go-around in the studio–and this time, she’s evoking a cold, cruel bitch named Electra Heart.

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Fiona Apple has just unveiled the official cover art and tracklisting for her highly anticipated fourth studio album due out in late June, entitled (quick inhale!): The Idler Wheel is wiser than the Driver of the Screw, and Whipping Cords will serve you more than Ropes will ever do.

I’m willing to bet whoever drew that cover doesn’t sleep very much at night.

And now, the tracklisting:

01 Every Single Night
02 Daredevil
03 Valentine
04 Jonathan
05 Left Alone
06 Werewolf
07 Periphery
08 Regret
09 Anything We Want
10 Hot Knife

I had the incredible pleasure of catching Fiona live for the first time ever at the Music Hall of Williamsburg two weeks ago, and she was absolutely fantastic. A very short set, yet so intensely performed. At times, she honestly looked possessed by her own thoughts onstage. (Or inner demons, perhaps.)

This is truly going to be one hell of a record.

The Idler Wheel… will be released on June 26. (iTunes)

Monster by Meg Myers

Genre: Alternative rock
Sounds like: Fiona Apple, Alanis Morrissette, Marina + The Diamonds

Meet Meg Myers, a rising musician based out of Los Angeles.

While details about the singer are still somewhat minimal, we’ve got one excellent tune to work with: “Monster.”

The song was co-scribed and produced by Doctor Rosen Dosen, the up-and-coming producer responsible for a couple of MuuMuse’s favorite remixes over the past years for acts like Britney and Lady Gaga, as well as his exciting collaborative project with a slew of rising female pop stars, including Kay and Jessie And The Toy Boys, called GIRLS.

Yet Myers’ sound is a complete departure for Rosen: There’s no pop beats to be found here–only jagged riffs and raw, vulnerable lyrics: “My love, too much/Your love, not enough,” Myers sadly croons above a slow-strumming guitar before launching into the song’s haunting chorus: “Oh, what it takes out of me to lay by your side!”

As Rosen explained to me, the song’s stripped production is a nod to ’90′s alt-rock–from Nirvana to Portishead. “What have I done? I’m a fucking monster!” Myers bitterly yelps at one point, her voice quivering with all the anguish of a classic Morrissette angst track.

Although Myers’ 6-track debut EP isn’t due for release until later in January, you can already hear two more cuts from the EP on her official website, including the piano-tinged, hook heavy “Adelaide” and “Poison,” which surges with a slightly more modern electro-rock flare (and was also featured on Rosen Rosen’s Girls Vol. 1.)

What I like most about Myers, as with fellow alt-rock chanteuses Skylar Grey and, to a somewhat more pop-oriented extent Marina And The Diamonds, Lana Del Rey and Sky Ferreira (when she’s in a more punk mood), is that she provides a breath of fresh air in a rapidly smothering climate of club-pop. Don’t get me wrong–I live for the stuff, but there’s more than enough room for some snarling, kick-ass rock chicks to come clawing their way to the top of the charts and adding some much-needed variety to radio.

Coupled with comeback LPs from industry veterans like Garbage and No Doubt a little later in 2012–along with the rumored, much-delayed return of Fiona Apple (dear God, let it be!)–this might just be the year that (good) rock finally makes a comeback.

“Monster” is available as a free download at Myers’ official website.

For fans of Garbage, Hole, Fiona Apple, Alanis Morrissette and all other torchbearers of mid-’90′s rock, take note: Your redemption has arrived.

Skylar Grey is the much buzzed-about singer-songwriter responsible for some of the most devastating hooks in pop of the past year (Diddy Dirty Money‘s “Coming Home,” Eminem & Rihanna‘s “Love The Way You Lie”).

(For more on her somewhat fragmented history as a solo artist and songwriter, check out MuuMuse contributor Sam Lansky’s in-depth article on Skylar Grey’s roots.)

Now, Grey comes out from behind the shadows once again to blaze her own–err, well, shadowy trails: “Dance Without You” is the first taste of solo Skylar reborn; a deliciously disjointed, grinding moment of industrial noise and bluesy rock-tinged despair released for free on the singer’s website earlier today.

“So serious all the time / I feel the strain, I feel confined,” Grey slowly moans above the song’s plodding beat and searing guitar licks, produced by longtime collaborator and UK-born hip-hop producer, Alex Da Kid.

While “Dance Without You” is hardly the stuff of Top 40 dreams (at least, not from anytime this decade), it’s still a welcome contrast to today’s over-saturation of hype-speed electro pop ditties from the likes of Dr. Luke and RedOne.

It’ll be interesting to see if the tides will turn to allow more rock-minded singer-songwriters like Grey a chance to rule the charts once again alongside our favorite pop acts. After all, a little angst is never a bad thing.

DL: Skylar Grey – Dance Without You

Skylar Grey’s debut album is due out later this year.

The Family Jewels is the debut album by Marina and the Diamonds (real name Marina Diamandis–see what she did there?).

Having just been named the #2 “One to Watch” on the BBC’s prestigious Sound of 2010 list, Marina is about to endure a great deal of scrutiny and criticism under the magnifying glass of the English press with the album’s release on February 22. But is she worth the dreaded hype?

Marina’s full, throaty delivery style has the ability to quickly divide her supporters from her detractors, meshing Regina Spektor‘s quirk and Fiona Apple‘s angst with a heavily theatrical flair. Never one to shy from over-enunciation, Marina tackles the bulk of her debut with a bold, brassy delivery and a dizzying array of instrumentation and sound.

The formula works wonderfully for the most part, as with the gorgeous, slow building “Obsessions” and the electro-bubbly contemplation of “Are You Satisfied?”Occasionally though, the album suffers from becoming all too much (and shrill), as evidenced by “Hermit the Frog,” a jumpy, quirky piano and strings-led number that sounds as though Marina is recalling the tale of her deflowering whilst spinning around a carousel filled with Broadway singers and marching band members.

The highlights of Jewels that shine brightest reside in its beginning and end, including “Oh No!”, “Shampain” and “Rootless,” a rewarding, slower moment of choral coos and ample amounts of harpsichord: “Running with my roots pulled up / Caught me cold so they could cut / What there was left of love / I’m rootless, I’m rootless.” Though just as ‘epic’-sounding as the rest of the album, it’s a much needed comedown from the occasionally overwhelming production.

If there’s a major criticism to be made about this album, it’s not the music, but rather the messages behind them. Lyrically, The Family Jewels offers a strange, if not inconsistent array of tales. “I know exactly what I want and who I want to be / I know exactly why I walk and talk like a machine / I’m now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy,” Marina announces in the delightfully explosive “Oh No!,” only seven songs after the seemingly contradictory “I Am Not A Robot.”

As with many of the songs that simultaneously fete and belittle the impossible dreams of fame and beauty such as “Girls” and “Hollywood,” Marina’s bouts of maniacal lyricism and celebrations of excess (“I’m obsessed with the mess that’s America”) too often position the singer as an unreliable narrator. We’re never entirely sure just who or what she’s singing about and, by the end, left wondering whether anything being sung is even sincere in the first place.

Then again, if the occasional contradiction in pop music were important, Lady “I hate money!” Gaga would be nowhere, money honey.

Marina’s debut is full of infectious melodies, bright sounds and fresh, delicious hooks. Even if the album as a whole may be a bit too much to tolerate in one spin, it’s not hard to see that there are more than just a few gems hidden in this box of Jewels.

Today is the official release of Marina and the Diamonds‘ Crown Jewel EP, featuring “I Am Not A Robot,” a snazzy new version of “Seventeen,” “Simplify,” and a delicious, absolutely essential mix of “Robot” by Starsmith.

And since I never really did “properly” introduce the girl that I consider thoroughly thrilling…

Marina & The Diamonds sounds a bit like if Regina Spektor met briefly with Fiona Apple (on a good day), Katy Perry (on speakerphone), and Frankmusik for tea (EDIT: AND YES, OF COURSE KATE BUSH–I just felt the reference was too obvious as it’s been used in every write-up about her already) and then they all got into an argument but then patched it up in the form of a massive duet.

Please consider yourself formally introduced.

DL: Marina And The Diamonds – I Am Not A Robot (Starsmith’s 24 Carat Remix)

Click here to purchase the package from the US, and here for the UK.

I think this could be the beginning of something really lovely. For no reason in particular, I accidentally stumbled upon the MySpace of up-and-coming artist, Charlotte Sometimes while avoiding my studies. With a genre label of “Nu-Jazz/Alternative/Pop” (ooh!), I was naturally quite intrigued. After the first song off the page (“How I Could Just Kill A Man”), I was sold. It was catchy, melodic, and full of deep, rich sound. She’s got a definite top notch singer-songwriter quality, but thankfully lacks the monotony that plagues so many one hit wonder crooners that pop up on the radio every month or so. “Love Song,” anyone? Just saying.

Like a more orchestrated version of Fiona Apple‘s voice, Charlotte delivers with a rich set of emotion-fueled pipes and an urgent vibrato. It’s a little amazing that she’s only twenty, since her vocal skills are at the same level as that of a seasoned musician. I’m also quite smitten with her self-image. She seems to bemuse herself with the idea of a stage persona versus her natural self: “For the most part I like to write poetry and hang out in my apartment and cry, but when I’m on stage I’m a man eating machine. It’s a way of being two people but still remaining myself.”

The man eating becomes apparent from the get-go off of her debut, Waves & The Both Of Us. The songs are charged with a burning energy with lyrics than are more biting than one would expect. They’re absolutely loaded with well executed vocal performances, never providing a dull moment…I’m honestly blown away by her singing ability. As for her sound? It’s a refreshing blend of mellowed hip-hop grooves a la Lily Allen, chugging guitars, a deep nu-jazzy undercurrent, and a nice melodic Regina Spektor nature, give or take a crazy pill…a winning combination, in my opinion.

So far, so very wonderful. I see opportunities of promise, and growth, and all of the squishy things that make a musician pump out tunes far, far into the future. This is the first time I’ve been excited about a new artist for some time. Give her a try, you never know when they’ll take off into the mainstream. Check her out at her MySpace, buy the album (which was actually released two days ago) on iTunes, or stream the entire album over at iMeem now!