Mark Savage:

Her third album, Froot, has been sitting on top of the iTunes pre-order chart for months, thanks to her tightly-knit and on-the-ball fanbase.

Those fans - the "diamonds" of her stage name - have already received six of the tracks, which were released in monthly instalments before the full album is revealed next week.

It's an innovative release strategy - and one that was partly necessary, after the singer realised her subtle, slow-burning new material wasn't likely to feature on daytime radio.

"I actually said to the label, I don't want to have to depend on radio support, so I focused completely on the fans."

Originally, the plan was to issue "two songs a month that were polar opposites sonically, like double A-sides," says Diamandis, "but iTunes wouldn't let me do that".

"It was probably for the best, because with this strategy you still get half an album that you haven't heard yet.

"And it's been really creatively liberating," she says. "I have no commercial pressures any more. So I'm able to survive in a really weird way."

The 6 songs are definitely slow-burners but so rewarding.

I didn't like the release 'strategy' at first but it's worked. 'Froot' is out on Monday and I'm very keen to hear the remaining songs.

I've been revisiting the first couple of albums a lot recently too. Electra Heart is flawed, but stands up to repeat plays.

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