MARINA’s album Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land was one of the most exciting releases of the summer for me. Her last album was released in 2019, so it’s safe to say a new album was long overdue for fans.
Like other pop music today, her new album has a rock element that elevates her usual sound, especially in my favorite track “I Love You But I Love Me More”. The first thing I noticed was that the opening track “Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land” shares a melody with Britney Spears’ “Womanizer”. A large portion of the album, especially “Purge The Poison,” acts as commentary towards the music industry and its ills, including the way Britney Spears has been treated since the early 2000s.
MARINA started her music career on MySpace as Marina Diamandis and became known as Marina and the Diamonds when she released her debut album The Family Jewels.
I discovered MARINA’s music when “Teen Idle” and other tracks from her album Electra Heart were very popular on platforms like Tumblr and Instagram. This was during the “soft grunge” era, so the melancholic tone of Electra Heart fit in nicely with the music of that time.
Many have (understandably) left that phase behind, along with her music. While fans were changing their identities, MARINA was as well. After her album Froot released in 2015 she was on hiatus for four years until the release of Love + Fear in 2019.
She changed her stage name to MARINA to have more freedom to be authentic as an artist rather than being the character she portrayed in Electra Heart.
Watch the official music video for MARINA’s recent song “Venus Fly Trap” here:
Although I am not the same person I was when I was on Tumblr around 2014, which is something we can all be thankful for, my love for MARINA’s music has remained. She still deserves the same recognition. A few of her songs such as “Primadonna” and “Hermit the Frog” have gained popularity on TikTok, which will hopefully result in more people streaming her music! Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land is sure to have some of my most played tracks of the summer.
