Editor’s Note: We have tweaked our This Show Is Tonight series to reflect the recent phenomenon of live music livestreaming in the age of social distancing.
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MARINA has been yearning for gender equality for so long that her dreams need to be dusted off.
Gone are the days of her 2010 debut, when she was self-righteously snapping at “silver spoons” and abusive lovers. So too is the Electra Heart era of idle teens, sardonic housewife worship, and bubblegum bitchiness that would come to define the rest of her career.
That was all a decade ago, and the landscape for advancing the feminist agenda has changed entirely. Post-#MeToo media dissecting life in a man’s world has awakened an avalanche of conversation (albeit to varying degrees of success). As the years, scandals, and hashtags pass, MARINA keeps shuffling her deck of grievances, putting her cards on the table in more explicit terms with every album cycle. She’s still got a white-knuckled grip on her seemingly ancient dreams in this new, modern land.
That’s why her new album is called, erm, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land.
Her fifth LP dropped yesterday (June 11), and today she christens it with set livestreamed at 9 p.m. ET via Moment House for fans in North and South America. In preparation, we’ve created an Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land listening guide, broken down by similarity to past MARINA eras. Let this be your reminder: Even as stage names and pop stylings shift, MARINA’s always been a smart-mouthed boundary pusher demanding what she — and womankind — deserves.
If you liked The Family Jewels, try: “Goodbye”
The punchy piano of “Goodbye” aligns it perfectly with the chaotic alt-pop chops of MARINA’s first album. It’s an exit oddly reminiscent of “Numb” about shedding girly naivete to embrace a more womanly, wiser stage of life. Which, in this case, refers to removing yourself from an past “you” that coddled the hell out of woebegone exes. “I’ve been a mother to everyone else / Every motherfucker except myself / And I don’t even have any kids,” she exalts. Translation: “I’m grown, why the hell aren’t you?” (or, conversely, “seek therapy already”).
See also: “New America”
If you liked Electra Heart, try: “Venus Fly Trap”
Are being a woman and having it all mutually exclusive? Can keep ladies heir marbles if they want to keep their accolades? Well, are you gonna go find out, or what? “Venus Fly Trap” presents an invitation for women to conquer their domains and collect their well-earned riches, while simultaneously ripping a hole in the “either/or” BS that somehow only ever applies to women. Genius or good looks? Mother or self-made millionaire? Power suits or pretty things? Good God, she says she doesn’t have to pick!? The song soothes the stupidity of sexism with the same brand of winking sarcasm that made Electra Heart a caustic pop commentary. “I got the beauty, got the brains / Got the power, hold the reins / I should be motherfucking crazy,” she sings, emphasis on the implied eye roll behind those last two words. Ouch. MARINA’s bite is back, baby.
See also: The title track, “Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land”
If you liked FROOT, try: “Purge the Poison”
Where MARINA’s third album focused on carnal fruits in bloom, “Purge the Poison” signals certain doom for a planet and the culture so hell-bent on torpedoing it. The single centers the theme of nature once again, this time with a sense urgency in the place of FROOT‘s awe. The chorus smushes a plea for change into a one-breath utterance, that despite being a Mary-Poppins-level mouthful is one of the album’s most memorable moments: “Needtopurgethepoisonfrommysystemuntilhumanbeingslistentellmewhodoyouthinkyouare?”
See also: “I Love You But I Love Me More”
If you liked Love + Fear, try: “Highly Emotional People”
“Highly Emotional People” spares the flowery metaphors and leans into the plain yet vulnerable language found on 2019’s Love + Fear. This crystalline piano ballad gives way to a booming bloom of synths, highlighting a bullet point in the MARINA style guide she’s had marked down since day one. Her slower masterworks don’t soar; they skyrocket.
See also: “Pandora’s Box,” “Flowers”
In a league of its own: “Man’s World”
“Man’s World” just doesn’t mesh with any other MARINA album. It puts the “Modern” in Ancient Dreams from A Modern Land, thanks in part to a grip on 2021 feminism that miraculously still manages to be dreamy. Her descriptions of womanhood err on angelic, but the lead single boils down to perhaps the greatest thesis of MARINA’s career thus far: “If you have a mother, daughter or a friend / Maybe it is time, time you comprehend / The world that you live in ain’t the same one as them.”
Think about it.