By Madison Wiser

Indie pop artist MARINA recently released her new self-penned album “Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land.” The album’s first half explodes with electropop vitality and lyrics dripping with social commentary, while its second half turns inward for bittersweet emotions and vocals.

The album’s title track “Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land” uses futuristic synths and drum beats to maintain pulsing, electric energy while MARINA sings, “You don’t have to be like everybody else / You don’t have to fit into the norm / You are not here to conform.” The song sets a fitting tone for the album and her work as a whole, when MARINA makes pop music her many fans adore while maintaining her unique style within the genre.

“Man’s World” revisits MARINA’s frequent themes of womanhood and feminism. The track’s sharp, looping piano and punctuating guitar riffs make way for her voice to soar as she pleads, “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 / So don’t punish me for not being a man.” She penned the track herself in response to the statistic that only two percent of producers and three percent of engineers across popular music are women.

Later in the album, MARINA shifts to a quieter, more emotional tone. In a song like “Flowers,” for example, she describes a relationship where if the other person had only treated them better, then maybe the relationship could have lasted. Rich, dreamy piano carries this song, paired with heart-breaking soprano vocals, inviting the listener to linger in anguish for a little while. 

Whether fans want energetic arrangements and righteous anger in tracks like “Man’s World” or “Purge the Poison,” or contemplative piano and empathetic lyrics in “Flowers” or “Highly Emotional People,” this album provides an outlet for all those emotions and more. The album is now available, and MARINA also announced her “Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land” 2022 tour, with tickets available on her website.