Despite Marina’s fourth record, a double album called Love + Fear, only being recently released in April, the Welsh goddess of thoughtful pop has already reworked five of the most acoustically adaptable songs into a five-track EP called, simply, Love + Fear (Acoustic). Because, you know, MTV Unplugged CDs aren’t a thing anymore. Even Lykke Li took a year to put out her addendum to so sad, so sexy: still sad, still sexy. But Marina isn’t one to leave her fans disappointed again after allowing four years to elapse between the release of Froot and her latest. Though it would have been nice for her to include a couple of new songs (or even previously unreleased ones like “I’m Not Hungry Anymore”) as Lykke Li did.
No matter, for her latest interpretations of “True,” “Superstar,” “Karma,” “No More Suckers” and “Orange Trees” are masterful marvels unto themselves, further proving that she is one of the most under-treasured singers working today. Though her fanbase is undoubtedly one of the most loyal and devout. With the soft, understated delivery of “True,” Marina then manages to transform “Superstar” into something even more magical and sumptuous in spite of its stripped down rendering. The video that accompanies (Marina will also be releasing ones for “True” and “Karma”) offers a wistful watery tableau that features Marina dressed in a silver sequined crop top and shorts with mermaid-like in length hair positioned into six heart shapes around her head. As she stands and moves in the spotlight of her underwater poolscape, the overall romance of “Superstar” is breathed with new life anew thanks to the visuals that give the acoustic rendering its due.
“Karma,” which Marina has showed recent favor toward by performing it on Jimmy Kimmel Live, lessens the severity of the tone that pervades it on the album’s original version. Sounding more genuinely shocked by the way life can work to deliver its own punishment to people who have wronged others or behaved badly, Marina’s line, “I’m like, oh my god, I think it’s karma” provides a greater mixture of both relief and slight compunction when someone who has hurt us finally gets what was coming to them.
“No More Suckers,” already the most pronounced “power ballad” of Love + Fear, becomes doubly more affecting in acoustic format, particularly as the chorus builds to a crescendo and she declares, “No more suckers/In my life/All the drama gets them high, I’m just tryna draw the line.” The faint introduction of the guitar as the song progresses further enriches the overall poignancy of a narrative so many can relate to: that of being the constant giver to a constant taker (especially in the female-male dynamic). That “Orange Trees” already had a rather acoustic feel to it, Marina likely chose to re-record it for its adaptability. As she put it, “…the production being more synthetic sometimes some songs don’t carry as well acoustically, but I think it’s more just to do with the structure of the song and the ease of singing it. Like, it’s down to how comfortable I feel singing it, so I’ve picked songs that felt very natural and easy for me to sing.” Not as though, from what one can tell, much of any song feels unnatural or difficult for her to execute, as evidenced not only by Love + Fear in original and acoustic forms (the latter of which she worked on creating with her guitarist, Ben Fletcher), but her live performances of them as she showcases her newfound enthusiasm for music while touring through the fall.
