The Family Jewels is the debut studio album by Welsh singer Marina Diamandis, released under the stage name Marina and the Diamonds. It was released on 15 February 2010 by 679 Recordings and Atlantic Records. Diamandis collaborated with several producers including Pascal Gabriel, Liam Howe, Greg Kurstin, Richard "Biff" Stannard, and Starsmith during its recording. She identifies the lyrical themes as "the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family, and female sexuality."
Contemporary music critics gave The Family Jewels fairly positive reviews, with the vocal delivery dividing opinions. The record debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 27,618 copies. The album was eventually certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) and has sold 195,358 units in the United Kingdom. The Family Jewels performed moderately on international record charts; it peaked at number 138 on the Billboard 200 in the United States, selling 4,000 copies its first week.
The Family Jewels was supported by five singles, all of which were supplemented by accompanying music videos. "Mowgli's Road" was released on 13 November 2009, although "Hollywood" became its first charting track after reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. Follow-up singles "I Am Not a Robot", "Oh No!" and "Shampain" respectively peaked at numbers 26, 38, and 141 in the United Kingdom. The record was additionally promoted by Diamandis' headlining the Family Jewels Tour, which visited Australia, Europe and North America from January 2010 through December 2011.
Background
Born and raised in South East Wales, Diamandis moved to London at the age of 18 to study music, despite not having a musical background. After dropping out of four institutions and failing in auditions, she began composing her own music. After the success of her Myspace-released EP Mermaid vs Sailor in 2007, she was signed by Neon Gold Records the following year and by 679 Artists in October 2008. In 2009, after playing at a variety of festivals including Glastonbury in the summer, she ranked in second place in the BBC's Sound of 2010 and was one of the three nominees for the Critics' Choice Award at the 2010 Brit Awards. In a 2012 interview with Between the Lines, Diamandis said that the album's title came from a slang term for testes, but she had been too coy to admit it before.
Composition
The Family Jewels is mainly an alternative pop, bubblegum-punk, electropop, and synth-pop record with influences of 1980s dance music and late-1990s female rock. Diamandis explained that the album is "a body of work largely inspired by the seduction of commercialism, modern social values, family and female sexuality", intended to be "enjoyed and consumed as a story and theory that encourages people to question themselves".
In a review for Q, writer Hugh Montgomery noted genres such as disco ("Shampain"), bubblegum punk ("Girls") and cabaret ("Hermit the Frog"). The opening track, "Are You Satisfied?", ponders the meaning of a fulfilling life; a writer for The Line of Best Fit likened it to the thinking of Danish existentialist philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. In a January 2010 interview with The Daily Telegraph, Diamandis admitted that she "cringes" at the lyrics of the song "Girls", which "could be seen as a bit misogynistic", including the lines "Girls they never befriend me/'Cause I fall asleep when they speak/Of all the calories they eat"; she clarified that the lyrics concerned her own psychological problems with weight. A Neon Gold press release for a limited double A-side of "Obsessions" and "Mowgli's Road" described the former as a "bold and ambitious ... master work" and the latter as a "a high intensity, left field pop smash".
Diamandis claimed that she made producer Liam Howe take 486 vocal takes for "The Outsider". "Hollywood" takes inspiration from Diamandis' previous obsession with American celebrity culture, while in "I Am Not a Robot", her favourite track from the album, she sings to tell herself to accept imperfection, with lines such as "you've been acting awful tough lately, smoking a lot of cigarettes lately ... don't be so pathetic"; she expected audiences to be able to relate to the song. "Numb" is an orchestral pop song that reflects on the dedication and sacrifice needed during her early years in London; "Oh No!" and "Are You Satisfied?" have similar lyrical themes. "Oh No!" was a late addition to the track listing, causing some reviews of the album to not include it. The album had initially been scheduled for release in October 2009, and was delayed by Diamandis' self-confessed perfectionism.