Shepherd's Bush Empire, London
Marina "and the Diamonds" Diamandis is about to release the follow-up to 2010's top-five debut album The Family Jewels, but there's something so exuberantly off-kilter about her that it's a wonder she was ever taken on by a major label. Tonight's show introduces her alter ego (yes, she's already got one, just two albums into her career): a character called Electra Heart – also the title of that forthcoming second album – who is "a vehicle to portray part of the American dream, with elements of Greek tragedy". Oh, great.
Accordingly, Marina/Electra wears a sparkling, full-skirted prom dress, and carries a toy poodle of the sort found in handbags, yet she never actually tells us about the archetype she's sending up, or why a girl from Abergavenny is so fascinated with the US.
By happenstance, there's a bronchial rasp to her voice that calls to mind Courtney Love, another enthusiastic American-dream satirist. It's just one more vocal tic on top of the familiar yodels and whoops that give an amdram aspect to every song. No criticism intended: there may be a large helping of frustrated actor in Marina, but that makes her a sight more interesting than the Rihannas of the world. She's also droll, telling a besotted male fan: "I love you, too – as much as I can love a stranger."
The new tunes are steeped in melodrama, of course. On the mannered electropopper Homewrecker, she claims: "They call me homewrecker/ I broke a million hearts just for fun." Starring Role, which pairs melancholy minor chords and a trundling bassline, contains the vow "I'll never set you free". If these delve into the dark side of the American dream, they're about as "deep" as the perky hit Hollywood, which closes the set to the memorable sight of Marina pogoing. Yet pop is a better place for her presence.