I Feel Celestial

Marina & The Diamonds “The Shampain Sleeper”

My first response to seeing that the word “champagne” is intentionally misspelled as “shampain” was to cringe, but now I think that in a silly sort of way, it was absolutely necessary. This is a song that is both knowingly preposterous and dead serious, and the spelling just adds to its brazen, super-glossy campiness. The melody sounds very anxious and the arrangement is almost absurdly taut, but it’s still a rather light song, in part because Marina is willing to go all out for a chorus as gloriously ridiculous as “drinking champagne / made by the angel / who goes by the name / of Glitterin’ Gabriel.” Oh, and that’s not even getting to the tea pun!

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