"'Marina and the Diamonds?' It's cute," she says as she opens up about maturity, heartbreak and owning her femininity. "It's for your twenties, but I'm 35 now. You know?"
Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is the fifth studio album by Welsh singer-songwriter Marina, released on 11 June 2021
Ancient Dreams is Marina's fifth studio album, and it's full of these sorts of juxtapositions; she isn't afraid to deliver an uptempo pop beat and explore the world's dark, ugly truths at the same time. Among other themes on the record, she alludes to global warming, misogyny, heartbreak, and racism. She asks us to think about how we can better ourselves, and her lyrics hit you when you least expect it. "People tend to shy away from these kinds of issues in songs," Marina tells Vogue. "But pop music is such an amazing vehicle to discuss those issues, and it doesn't matter if people agree with you or not—it's a conversation starter. That's the most powerful thing about art.
On "New America," you really go in hard on America's dark history, with references to both stolen land and systemic racism. Was there a specific event that got you thinking about doing that song?
George Floyd's murder, definitely. I wrote some of the song the day after that happened, and then I realized that I shouldn't be writing this right now. I needed to understand, on a much deeper level, what was happening. [American history] is mine, but it's not mine: I'm not American, and I haven't lived my whole life here. The U.K. certainly doesn't have a clean track record, nor does Greece, and these are the places where I've grown up. But America has been this empire—it's like the world's superpower—and we all have looked to America for how to progress and evolve. I feel like there's been a feeling of relief after the past year, that we can at least be truthful about what the United States is and what the social problems are here—as opposed to just continuing as if they don't exist.
The music is pleasantly accessible, rather than daring, although you could imagine legendary producer Trevor Horn remixing Venus Fly Trap's elegant take on 80s synth funk. Lyrically, it's brimming with bristling ambition. Man's World's first two verses breezily link the Salem witch trials and 18th-century painter François Boucher with Marilyn Monroe and hypocritical, homophobic autocrats. Pandora's Box may be a collection of limp balladeer cliches, yet it follows the bruising New America, her savage rebuke of the failure of the States. Anti-misogyny manifesto pop could easily become clumsy and overwrought, but the joy Marina invests into her mannered, quasi-operatic delivery makes sedition sound seductive.
The first half of the album is intoxicating—it is danceable and full of fun energy. The second half of the album is all heartbreak and slow piano-filled ballads carried by Marina's whimsical and hollowing vocals. "Pandora's Box" and "Flowers" require repeated listens to really feel the intention of the lyrics, while also maintaining the flow of the record. The topics throughout are raw and unfiltered—something Marina does extremely well as an artist; always has and will likely continue to do so
With more positive songs fewer and further apart, the album is comprised mostly of slow, sad songs about faded relationships and songs with political commentary. Diamandis, a proud feminist, LGBTQ+ supporter, and climate change activist, ironically provides some wokeness on Ancient Dreams with "Man's World," where she explicitly details how the Sultan of Brunei purchased the Beverly Hills hotel, the "campest hotel in L.A.," only to have overseen the slaughtering of homosexuals in his own country.
"Purge the Poison" is is also heavy on feminist imagery, and very forthrightly regales audiences with facts about underrepresentation of women in government. The Welsh singer's final hot take is a bouncy little number called "New America," where she mentions that Americans have "blood on their hands 'cause they stole all the land," among other bluntly literal lyrics. In the case of another artist, these songs would seem ludicrous and pat. But Diamandis' style doesn't detract from the enjoyability.
No love for Marina on Era?
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