The lovely Miss Marina And The Diamonds just announced on Twitter that the first official single from her upcoming album will be called “Prima Donna,” due out on April 16.

*Checks watch.* Is it April yet? No? Okay. Let’s pass the time then…

Last year, the “Obsessions” chanteuse grabbed for a blonde wig and introduced us to Electra Heart, the tragic protagonist of a mini-epic that explored the notion of the American Dream. (God, she just loves dealing with that subject!)

Over the past few months, we’ve already heard her amazing Stargate-produced smash “Radioactive” (still one of my favorite songs of 2011), as well as some stunning leaked cuts like “Starring Role.” Could my anticipation for this upcoming record be any higher at this point? No, I think it could not.

Here’s hoping this new single is actually just a cover of Legendtina‘s Bionic classic, “Prima Donna.”

So ladies, pop pop pop…

“Radioactive” was released on September 30 in the UK. (iTunes UK)

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.

What’s the only thing better than reflecting on my favorite releases of the past year? Why, pondering what happens next year of course!

Below are some of MuuMuse’s Most Anticipated releases of 2012–a round-up of what we already know, what we’ve already heard, what we want to hear in the next year.

Madonna, TBA (Twelfth Studio Album)

What it is: The return of the Queen.
Expected shelf date: March 2012.
Confirmed tracks: “Gimme All Your Luvin,” “Girls Gone Wild,” “Masterpiece”
Production by: William Orbit, Jean Baptiste, Martin Solveig, Benny Benassi
What we know: The chant-ridden lead single “Gimme All Your Luvin” already leaked in demo form weeks ago, though the final version will be getting a (hopefully muscled-up) makeover with M.I.A. and Nicki Minaj when released in January. But between “Gimme” and the tender sound of W.E. closer “Masterpiece”–her best ballad in years–there’s still no telling what the actual direction is yet. Regardless, Orbit claims Madonna has amazed him “in unexpected ways” while recording.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Madonna doing what she does best–making innovative pop music that sets the bar and stands the test of time.

Marina + The Diamonds, Electra Heart (Second studio album)

What it is: Corruption, immoral behavior, and the death of the American dream–all in a blonde wig.
Expected shelf date: 2012.
Confirmed tracks: “Fear & Loathing,” “Radioactive,” “The Archetypes”
Produced by: StarGate, Guy Sigsworth, Diplo, Greg Kurstin, Dr. Luke
What we know: It’s going to be a concept record (to some degree). As Marina told PopJustice in an interview, the album tells the tale of an American Dream-meets-Greek tragedy through a character she came up with: Electra Heart. Her StarGate-produced alt-dance pop single “Radioactive”–the second part of an ongoing video series documenting the birth of Electra Heart–was easily one of the best songs of 2011, and leaked demo “Starring Role” proved that Diamandis’ caustic writing style is still very much alive and well.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Sharp-tongued quirk-pop with punchy beats and devastating ballads–just don’t get too mired in the concept, please.

Garbage, TBA (Fifth Album)

What it is: A rock goddess and her talented troupe finally return to save the world.
Expected shelf date: Late March/Early April 2012
Confirmed tracks: TBA
Production by: Garbage
What we know: Apart from a greatest hits package, it’s been almost seven years since Garbage’s 2005 triumph, Bleed Like Me, was released. After taking some time apart as a band (including Manson’s failed foray into crafting a solo album with Greg Kurstin and Paul Buchanan that was rejected by labels for being “too noir” and will forever remain one of the world’s greatest musical injustices), the group is back. As Butch Vig told Billboard, the album will feature “noisy guitars, big electronic beats, atmospheric film moments.” And judging by the samples that they’ve teased to fans over the past few months–they’re hitting harder than ever.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: More head-spinning electronic rock production, mind-numbingly catchy hooks and razor-sharp lyricism from the one and only Miss Manson.

Charli XCX, TBA (Debut Album)

What it is: A young Goth-pop princess on the verge of exploding.
Expected shelf date: TBD.
Confirmed tracks: “Stay Away,” “Nuclear Seasons”
Production by: Ariel Rechtshaid, Patrik Berger
What we know: The 19-year-old UK club kid’s dark, industrial 2011 buzz single “Stay Away” is easily one of my favorite songs of the year, while the bouncy, vintage ’80s sheen and crackle of lead single “Nuclear Seasons” finds the 19-year-old songstress blending elements of Marina + The Diamonds, Kate Bush and Gwen Stefani.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Gloom ‘n’ doom beats and spooky vocals.

Ke$ha, TBA (Second Album)

What it is: The trash-pop glamazon’s long awaited follow-up.
Expected shelf date: May 2012, according to Dr. Luke.
Confirmed tracks: None
Production by: Dr. Luke, Max Martin
What we know: Earlier in the year, Ke$ha told MTV that the new album was going to be “balls-out, irreverent rock and roll.” Recent leaks like “Shots On The Hood Of My Car” and “Only Wanna Dance With You” suggest more of the same glitter-drenched party pop, although it’s unclear if they’re from recent sessions. The only definite new recording is her sobering cover of Bob Dylan‘s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” Why the long wait? Simple. She has a goal: “To reinvent pop music.” Easy, right?
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Crunchy, rowdy beats and even sleazier debauchery. But even as the rough gem she is, Ke$ha shines brightest on her balladry–fingers crossed for at least one or two.

Lana Del Rey, Born To Die (Debut Album)

What it is: The end result of a whole lot of hipster hype.
Expected shelf date: January 30, 2012
Confirmed tracks: “Video Games,” Blue Jeans,” “Born To Die”
Production by: Justin Parker, Robopop
What we know: She’s been unfairly thrust into way too bright of a spotlight for only one or two songs so far (the genius “Video Games” and “Blue Jeans”) thanks to a nearly creepy obsession by indie bloggers both hailing and criticizing the singer (yes, she got her lips done–we get it). But the husky-voiced Del Rey–formerly Lizzy Grant–has since held her own, delivering yet another staggering, weepy-eyed smash with “Born To Die”–the title track off of her upcoming Interscope Records debut. With any luck, the album will follow suit.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Sweeping, dramatic classics sung atop hip-hop beats and Western twangy noises with all the grandeur of a James Bond theme.

Miike Snow, TBA (Second Album)

What it is: One of pop’s greatest production troupes returns for another moment of left-of-center pop-rock ingenuity.
Expected shelf date: TBA
Confirmed tracks: “Devil’s Work”
Production by: Miike Snow
What we know: Andrew Wyatt and Bloodshy & Avant–here known individually as Christian Karlsson and Pontus Winnberg, delivered one of pop’s greatest surprises with their 2009 record, Animal. After spending over a year recording, the trio returned with buzz single “Devil’s Work”–a sharp, staggering mixture of crashing drums, mighty horns and electronica. The accompanying tease of a video, featuring a man running down an empty desert highway, hints at an upcoming story to be told about the birth of a new human race. It’s weird, captivating and it’s all very promising.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Strange Swede-pop production and poignant lyricism.

Diana Vickers, TBA (Second Album)

What it is: The delightfully darling X Factor Alum’s sophomore attempt.
Expected shelf date: TBA
Confirmed tracks: None
Production by: Donkeyboy, Amir Amor
What we know: The quirky electro-pop songstress isn’t straying far from the twinkling sound of her 2010 debut, Songs From The Tainted Cherry Tree. Newly premiered buzz tracks–“Music To Make The Boys Cry” and “Kiss Of A Bullet”–suggest both bright, twinkling beats and cutting Rachel Stevens-esque synth-pop.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: More of the same winning electro-pop charm, but with new and up-and-coming producers.

Sky Ferreira, TBA (Debut Album)

What it is: Pop’s most thrilling enfant terrible finally finding her footing.
Expected shelf date: TBA
Confirmed tracks: None
Production by: TBA, presumably Bloodshy & Avant
What we know: Nothing’s guaranteed. In early 2011, Ferreira released the year’s best pop EP–As If!–boasting five crunchy, forward-thinking pop cuts like “Traces” and “99 Tears.” But between album push-backs, label misfires and her own personal rebellions, no one’s certain about the fate of a Sky Ferreira LP. The underrated chanteuse has been leaking songs left and right onto her official SoundCloud, teasing everything from drifting alt-pop rock, to delicious deep disco jams, to crunchy Bloodshy & Avant unreleased gems. According to the singer herself, a new single will be released in early 2012. Let us pray.
MuuMuse hopes to hear: Anything. Sky doesn’t make bad music.

The anticipation for Marina + The Diamonds‘ upcoming album only seems to grow exponentially with each new song that surfaces these days.

Following the release of her unbelievably incredible Stargate-produced single “Radioactive” at the end of September, the indie-pop UK songstress has been hard at work putting the finishing touches on her as-of-yet untitled sophomore effort, due out sometime in 2012.

Enter “Starring Role”: A brand new track that just leaked today, rumored to have been recorded for the upcoming album. If that’s the case, no wigs are safe when Marina unleashes Album #2, because this new tune’s as absolutely brilliant as her latest single.

Stretched across a minimal, slow-building electronic beat, Marina positively seethes about a lover that’s not quite reciprocating in the emotional department. Though the song’s producer is still unconfirmed, its electro-organic feel reminds me of Guy Sigsworth‘s productions (Imogen Heap, Alanis Morrissette), or even a tinge of William Orbit‘s chillier work on Madonna‘s Ray Of Light.

But the true genius of this one? The writing. Lyrically, “Starring Role” is absolutely stellar. The balance between fragile and furious works perfectly. A few examples:

When you’re in my bed, all you give me is a heartbeat.

The only time you open up is when we get undressed.

You don’t love me, big fucking deal/I’ll never tell you how I feel.

I’d rather walk alone than play a supporting role.

Sometimes I ignore you so I feel in control/’Cause really I adore you, and I can’t leave you alone.

Amazing. Between this and “Radioactive,” are we looking at an early contender for Album of 2012? Certainly seems that way.

EDIT: Marina herself uploaded the song to YouTube over the weekend. Listen now!

“Radioactive” was released on September 30. (iTunes)

Though only 19 years old, Charli XCX has making a name for herself in the British pop circle for years now.

After rising to underground fame as a Londontown club kid and unleashing a smattering of songs to the Internetz, the young electro-pop singer has opened for several high-profile acts, including Robyn and Peaches.

As a result, she’s made several small-but-significant splashes in the mainstream press already, including an introduction in The Guardian back in 2008 (cleverly dubbing her “The Fisher Price Fischerspooner“), a profile in Dazed Digital, and a feature within an Interview Magazine article in 2009 spotlighting the rising “Brit Pop Girls” of the time, including Little Boots and La Roux. And while her own launch has been delayed far longer than the other girls highlighted within the group, hers may be the most promising and intriguing yet.

Earlier this year, Charli unleashed the unbelievably killer “Stay Away”–a jagged warning shot fired against grinding, gritty synthesizers that easily ranks amongst my favorite singles of 2011. “Do you remember what I said the first time that we met? Stay away,” she desperately pleads above the demented beat, crafted by American producer Ariel Rechtshaid. It’s gorgeous and haunting; the kind of song that simply can’t be played enough, and a dark, sexy slice of what both reviewers and she herself have lovingly dubbed “Goth-pop.”



Now the teenage chanteuse returns with a new song for the end of November: “Nuclear Seasons.” The song, which is available for free on her official website, plays like a darker take on the slick ’80′s revivalist pop sheen of Gwen Stefani‘s solo career (though I’m hearing a bit of No Doubt‘s “It’s My Life” in the verses as well), added to Marina + The Diamonds‘ damning, dramatic vibrato. “You taste the blast and it shook your bones,” she cooly croons as she ruminates on an explosive relationship on the rocks. Don’t drop bombs, baby!

Along with some of the aforementioned artists, she’s also giving me some serious Sky Ferreira vibes: She’s young, free-spirited, mysterious and fiercely rebellious (never too afraid to toe the line between outspoken and all-out bitchy, as her thoughts on Gaga and La Roux may attest). And like Ferreira, she’s responsible for more than a few pop ditties that utterly slay everything else playing on the radio today.

In short, I’m a big fan of Charli XCX.

Though there’s still not too many tunes floating around by the young London-bred singer just yet, she’s quickly become one of my latest obsessions–and certainly one of my most anticipated acts for 2012. Watch for her debut to hit in 2012, which features more production by Rechtshaid, as well as “Dancing On My Own” producer Patrik Berger, and Teddybears member (and older brother to fellow Robyn hit maker, Klas Åhlund), Joakim Åhlund.

(Oh, yeah–and the XCX stands for “Kiss Charli Kiss,” which the singer herself calls “unbelievably crap.”)

“Stay Away” was released on May 15. (iTunes UK)

“Lying on a fake beach, you’ll never get a tan / Baby I’m gonna leave you drowning, until you reach for my hand,” she croons.

And so begins the second chapter of Electra Heart, the American Dream-turned-Greek tragedy being slowly unwoven by bright red-lipped UK chanteuse Marina + The Diamonds.

After the release of “Fear & Loathing” on August 8 comes “Radioactive,” produced by DJ Chuckie and powerhouse Norwegian production team Stargate–Marina’s most daring lift-off from her usual output, and also one of her finest songs to date.

Boldly charging into mainstream production territory, Miss Diamandis lays her signature chops atop a pulsating, shimmering dance beat that could have just as easily been found layered into Rihanna‘s LOUD or an Alexis Jordan club cut.

Yet this both is and isn’t an immediate radio smash: While the beat is thoroughly Top 40, the songcraft is still very much a Marina production, featuring emotionally charged lyrics (“My heart is nuclear / Love is all that I fear / Ready to be let down, now I’m headed for a meltdown”) and the singer’s signature leaping vocal acrobatics and quivering vibrato. The result? An utterly stellar indie-goes-dance production–the kind of smart pop that helps to continue to redefine the genre.

The accompanying Casper Balslev-directed clip is equally breathtaking: Like a cross between Bonnie & Clyde and The Virgin Suicides, there’s something simultaneously thrilling and spooky in watching Heart’s rebellious adventures through the windy deserts, sleazy motel rooms and desolate supermarkets of heartland America.

Where will it all end for Electra? We’ll find out soon enough when the story’s third installment is uploaded within the next week or two.

“Radioactive” will be released on October 3. (iTunes UK)

Don’t call it an alter-ego.

Meet Electra Heart: She is a story, not a person, as invented by one of the brightest new talents to come from the UK: Marina + The Diamonds.

After the release of her critically acclaimed debut last year, The Family Jewels, Marina’s been hard at work cooking up the follow-up to her debut with some of pop’s heaviest hitters (despite an initial hesitance), including Dr. Luke and Stargate.

For fans accustomed to the singer’s quirky mixture of bright, hook-heavy pop melodies and dramatic vocalizing, the Top 40 production roster for Marina’s as-of-yet untitled sophomore attempt seems somewhat surprising. As the singer explained in an interview with PopJustice:

If this was a year ago I don’t mind saying now that I would have been, like, “no way am I doing this”. I was not even up for working with anyone. This is why these two songs fit really well together actually, because ‘Fear & Loathing’ is about genuinely not feeling bitter or crazy or jealous any more (nervous laugh) and actually feeling a lot better off for it.

To kick off her new beginning, the singer has given birth to Electra Heart, a character Marina will employ to narrate a grander vision: A tale of the American dream (with a side of Greek tragedy to boot.)

It’s a concept she’s been continuously fascinated by (as previously encountered on her Family Jewels single “Hollywood.) Yet as she explained to PopJustice, the story this time around has more to do with exploring the underbelly of American society than the glitz and glamour that underscored her 2010 single:

Electra Heart is the antithesis of everything that I stand for. And the point of introducing her and building a whole concept around her is that she stands for the corrupt side of American ideology, and basically that’s the corruption of yourself. My worst fear – that’s anyone’s worst fear – is losing myself and becoming a vacuous person. And that happens a lot when you’re very ambitious.

And so it began on Monday, as Marina uploaded Part One of her tale: “Fear & Loathing.” Directed by Caspar Balslev, the video finds the beautiful crooner sitting in front of a vanity, deep in thought and thoughtfully staring into the mirror. At a point, she lifts a pair of scissors and–pensively–begins to hack away at her own curls, inch by inch until settling for a cropped bob and strolling out onto the balcony.

The song itself is a gorgeous, slightly more sophisticated departure for the 25-year-old singer, complimented by echoing piano chords and airy, soaring ambient sound. “There’s no crime in being kind / Not everyone is out to screw you over / Maybe they just want to get to know you,” she ponderously croons. It’s a more mature, developed sound for the singer–an incredibly promising start to a new chapter in Marina’s career.

The next piece of Electra Heart: The Start will be uploaded to Marina’s YouTube next Monday at 4 PM.

And–if you couldn’t tell by now by the copious quotage–you really ought to read the entire interview with Marina over at PopJustice now for added insight.