MARINA - Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land - Single [Review]

Welsh and Greek pop musician Marina Diamandis (who goes simply by MARINA) is set to release her fifth studio album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, on June 11, 2021, and the title track makes for the third single released from the upcoming album following "Purge the Poison" (reviewed here) and "Man's World" (reviewed here). I really love "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land" (which is not only, as I said, the album's title track but is also the album's opening track) because of how it hearkens back to old school MARINA from The Family Jewels. I have seen some fans, in fact, compare it to the track "Mowgli's Road," and I can definitely hear a similarity in its chord progression. The first single released from the album - "Man's World" - reminded me a lot of MARINA's third studio album FROOT, especially with the very beginning sounding so similar to the very beginning of "I'm a Ruin," and "Purge the Poison" - like this song - reminded me of The Family Jewels. Both "Purge the Poison" and "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land" are somewhat synthy and arguably lean more toward rock than they do pop. The song is very upbeat and very playful, and it makes me so happy to hear this side of MARINA again because even though I do really like her 2019 album LOVE + FEAR, I strongly feel like that side of her is largely missing from that album. Like the first two singles, "Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land" is a critique on the overall path upon which humanity seems to be. In the first verse, for example, she argues, "Our ancestors had to fight to survive just so we could have a chance of a life. We're not here so we can blow it all." Much of the lyrical content on The Family Jewels (on tracks such as "I Am Not a Robot," "Mowgli's Road," and "Oh No!") is about finding yourself and trying to fight the fear of being your true self. In the pre-chorus of this song, MARINA assures us that "you don't have to be like everybody else. You don't have to fit into the norm. You are not here to conform." What's interesting, however, is that she doesn't likely mean it in the same context as she did back on The Family Jewels. I think that she is instead arguing here that you can be the one who starts a revolution and encourages change. I especially think that because she then follows that part of the song up with, "I am here to take a look inside myself, recognize that I could be the eye, the eye of the storm." It's such a fun and, as I said, playful upbeat synth-rock track, and I cannot wait to hear the rest of the album only twelve days from now!