MARINA
Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land
Atlantic
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Issued in February 2010, Marina Diamandis’ gold-selling debut The Family Jewels set many hearts aflame by dauntlessly blurring the lines between commercial and alternative pop. The follow-up Electra Heart (2012)—an even more ambitious collection—went on to establish her as a truly singular force.
But even as she secured her second gold certified effort in the UK with Electra Heart, Diamandis recognized that she had painted herself into a stylish corner. The long player’s designation wasn’t just a mere title, but the name of a character she invented to study four American female archetypes through song: “Housewife,” “Beauty Queen,” “Homewrecker,” and “Idle Teen.” Pundits were politely divided on this loose concept album, but audiences thrilled at the theatricality espoused in the music and accompanying visuals.
With the “Electra Heart” persona threatening to smother Diamandis, she shifted track tonally with Froot (2015) and Love + Fear (2019), nuanced affairs that emphasized the range of her lyrical, vocal and sonic talents. Critics and fans were held fast in her power. However, a dialogue soon came to bear in the immediate slipstream of Love + Fear’s unveiling: which of her projects best captured Diamandis’ ethos?
As if on cue, the Brynmawr, Wales born singer and scribe has put forward her fifth LP, Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land. The extroverted sizzle of its last three singles (out of four)—“Venus Fly Trap,” the title piece and “Purge The Poison”—seemingly augur a return to the flash of The Family Jewels and Electra Heart. But that’s not entirely accurate.
Despite the discernible edge expressed on these singles, lead offering “Man’s World” recalls the avant-garde textures of Froot and Love + Fear. A proper journey into the record reveals a union between both halves of Diamandis’ artistic self: the lively diva and the subtle chanteuse. This subsequent development has yielded her most satisfying body of work yet.
Ten cuts deep, the song cycle leaps from Diamandis’ technicolor imagination with her penning all of the material here; accomplished tunesmiths Jennifer Decilveo and James Flannigan forge the eclectic constructs she utilizes—and co-produces—on the long player.
A vivid fusion of her familiar esoteric pop (“Man’s World”) and poignant balladry (“Highly Emotional People”) are present and accounted for, but the new wave fervor actioned on “Venus Fly Trap” and “Purge the Poison” proves that Diamandis is more than capable of expanding her sonic toolbox as desired. And regardless of whether the material on Ancient Dreams is wired to a hyperactive or tranquil gait, it is cast in a fresh, filmic fashion that Diamandis brings to life with her chameleonic vocal flair.
Sketched onto these varied sonic canvases are their respective, enthralling narratives. Like Love + Fear beforehand, Ancient Dreams was made as a partial response to the escalating global tensions and upheaval that haven’t necessarily eased up in the interim between Diamandis’ fourth and fifth albums.
On the first half of the LP (six sides), Diamandis confronts this myriad of socio-political concerns head on; her explorations into feminism (“Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land”) and racial inequality (“New America”) are done with a keen wit and sensitivity.
“Purge The Poison” finds her taking things a step further in weaving together several different thematic strands—among them environmentalism, sexism and celebrity culture—into a striking whole. Diamandis also folds in her own existentialist queries for just enough of an intimate touch. She ventures deeper into her own personal effects with the last four entries that close Ancient Dreams: “Pandora’s Box,” “I Love You But I Love Me More,” “Flowers” and “Goodbye.” This quartet is a rending, but ultimately uplifting post-mortem of her relationship’s end with Jack Patterson (of Clean Bandits renown).
For eleven years, Diamandis has allowed her muse to guide her wherever it may lead. Having closed any sort of divide between the two sides of her creative mind with Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land, she is currently acting with a new level of control and confidence over her songcraft.
Diamandis remains one of the greatest pop genre aesthetes of our age—long may she reign.
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