actually, my name's marina

marina and the diamonds has been on my blog to-do list for quite some time now. of all of the female blog-pop acts to emerge over the past year or so (florence and the machine, ellie goulding, etc.), she is actually the one i have highest hopes for in terms of commercial success. could be her voice. could be her looks. i don't know. call it a feeling.

her debut album the family jewels comes out feb. 15 and is preceded by single "hollywood" on february 1. the single is already racking up the club remixes and i figured it was time to have another "clash of the remixes" feature on some of the best. let's dig in...


first up, we have the video for the original for reference:



jaunty and uplifting in spite of the slightly cynical lyrics. a swell starter for the album.

but like marina's past work (see also the wonderful "mowgli's road"), it sparkles even brighter in club-ready form. i don't know what it is about artists and producers that are able to transform her songs into such bangers but i'm not about to start complaining now.

first up is a remix by UK electro-poppers fenech-soler. inverting the verse and chorus over bombastic dance beat, they completely reinvent the track as a fiery floor-filling rager that demands to be blasted at eleven.

oh. my. god. doesn't quite cover it.

you can hear that over at neon gold records.

up next is the juan maclean's version of the track. it's competent but feels rather pedestrian and predictable marina's voice feels too big for the dfa-by-numbers backing track and begs to bust out into something a lot more propulsive and energetic.

this one can be found here courtesy of electronic rumors.

and finally, we've got the most recent take on the song by marina's fellow neon gold upstarts, the mysterious monarchy. it doesn't announce itself as strongly as the fenech-soler version but it has a perfectly lovely disco glide that evokes memories of some of fred falke's better work from the past year. i can't say it yet, but i'm fairly positive that this one will emerge as my favorite of the bunch with more time.

but what do i know? grab this one over at discodust and decide for yourself which of the three is your personal favorite. feel free to let me know in the comments.

and for the sake of symmetry, here's a video for marina's acoustic version of the regional. quite nice, it is: