Album Review: Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land

In early 2016, Marina and the Diamonds closed out the Froot album campaign by announcing she’d be going on a much-needed hiatus. She spent a big chunk of the next three years studying psychology in London, learning about floral design, and traveling with her boyfriend Jack Patterson of Clean Bandit. When she returned in 2019 with Love + Fear, she’d dropped the second half of her stage name, now only known as MARINA. Fans had mixed reactions to both the name change as well as the sterilized-pop sound of the new record, citing Marina had lost her touch.

Marina self-admittedly can’t be pinned down, so with each new record, she has gotten used to a mixed reaction from fans hoping she would continue the previous record’s sound. Yet it seems that something got to her with the reaction to Love + Fear. She has penned various letters discussing her thoughts on her relationship with songwriting, creativity, and her fans. “‘Froot’ and ‘Love + Fear’ had very high emotional and spiritual pay-offs for me even though they probably sold less than my first two,” she wrote in late 2019. The following year brought confirmation that the next record would be a quick follow-up to the last, with Marina asking for female collaborators and teasing demos here and there as the world plunged into quarantine.

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is a return to form for Marina, filled with the oddball melodies and sass that propelled her to become Tumblr’s sweetheart circa 2012. Where it may fall short on lyrical ingenuity, it makes up for in sentiment—an ode to the deepest of heartbreaks:

“I am not my body, not my mind or my brain” sings over an animated percussion in the album's opener and title track. The track is a perfect progression to Marina’s journey to understand her purpose, a far cry from the angst of The Family Jewels or anxious “Savages” off Froot. It’s also hard to miss the melodic similarities to Britney’s “Womanizer,” but Marina has never shied away from harking to her teenage idol. Marina kicks up the sass on “Venus Fly Trap,” putting a middle finger up to all the Twitter trolls writing jokes about her being poor, slyly singing, “I'm a millionairess.” It is the shortest track on the record, but it packs quite the punch.

Both of these tracks have undertones of sociopolitical commentary, but Marina transitions into the record’s core of political songs. “Man’s World” was the first preview of the album back in the fall, yet it still sounds as crisp today. “I don’t wanna live in a man’s world anymore” is a simple but powerful phrase and the track’s smooth guitar riffs make it an instant Marina classic. Amping up the alt-rock mood, “Purge the Poison” on paper might seem like it should not work with lyrics like “We only make up one quarter of the government” sounding like they belong in a Twitter thread rather than a song. Still, Marina carries her songwriting through with sharp and quirky vocal choices. It is the oddball and feet stomping song that few artists pull off.

To balance out the tracklist, Marina slows things down on “Highly Emotional People,” a bittersweet piano-led track about an emotionally unavailable man. While possibly the least eventful song on the record, Marina’s higher register and building synths towards the end are beautiful. Picking up the political pace one more time, “New America” holds more of Marina’s eccentric melodies. If it wasn’t for the fact that she has always been critical of America since her 2009 debut, I would say this song would feel too on the nose for a post-2020 world where most celebrities are keen on disingenuous political commentary. But Marina sounds genuine when forcing America to accept the blood on its hands.

Fully grounded as a politically aware and self-assured woman, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land takes a significant thematic turn. The last four tracks keep up the dreamy pianos, alt-rock influences, and left-field melodic progressions but the album turns inward into Marina’s breakup with her boyfriend of five years.

“Pandora’s Box” sets the tone for Marina’s painful honesty as she comes to terms with the fact that she was with “someone so unkind.” The mid-tempo production does not offer anything revolutionary, but her realization that “I pray that hope’s not lost” still tugs at your emotions. In a similar sense, but in a more alt-rock anthem kind of way, the straight-up breakup anthem “I Love You But I Love Me More” is stunning. Questioning her ex’s pleas to reconcile, Marina gets to the heart of things with, “You try to tell me that we're so deep in love / Well if we were, then why did we fuck it up?” The second half of the song soars with more great guitars.

“Now we reached the end” Marina sings over just a piano on “Flowers.” Maintaining her inner strength of the first half of the album, she sings, “I would rather not / Betray myself, just to keep your love at any cost.” She continues singing about the bright future ahead of her, but you can feel her pain as she realizes, “now I'll never know / What parts of your love were for real /And what parts were for show.” There is nothing mind-blowing or lyrically groundbreaking, but a song as heartfelt as this doesn’t need it. From here, Marina ends the album with a bittersweet “Goodbye” to the version of herself that “never wanted our love to end.” There is continued honest criticism of herself and her ex-partner, but Marina’s mature acceptance of the end of the relationship paired with lines like “Maybe we won't meet again / But you'll always be my closest friend” make this a beautiful end to the record.

I will admit, it is very likely that the reason I am generally favorable to the second half of the record is that it seems Marina and I are going/went through the same quarantine breakup situation, so in general the relatability level on these songs are quite high. I have also been quite a fan of all her albums (yes, even Love + Fear), so I am used to her wacky takes on pop melodies and frequency to bring up social issues. Nevertheless, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is another strong addition to alt-pop in 2021.

Marina’s songwriter and production touches are quite evident across all these tracks. You can just tell her producer mainly polished up the demos she cooked up on her own, so sometimes the tracks do stray towards DIY-SoundCloud territory. Tracks like “Highly Emotional People” and “Pandora’s Box” also don’t hit the highs that they could, but given that none of the songs overstay their welcome and the track list is so short, there is not necessarily a certified skip on here.

Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land is as aberrant as it is cliché, yet it is clear that it is a body of work that is all Marina, which is all you can ask for from an artist.