Mission of Burma more assured than ever on Unsound, Dirty Projectors stretch out, Eleni Mandell sees the future, English Beat complete, Woody Guthrie at 100, and more.
Only in the UK (where this album is already a hit) would lyrics this subversive come with pop this sparkly and commercial. Group mastermind Marina Diamandis can spin dance beats and hooks with the biggest of them (with one difference: Though there are many layers of vocals on each song, she has enough range to rely very little on Auto-Tune). But the lyrics, beginning with the anti-anthem “Bubblegum Bitch,” take a scalpel both to the consumerism of teen pop, and the social norms it reinforces. It’s what you’d get if Lana Del Rey and Gang of Four collaborated.
