I should start by saying that if, like me, you are a collector and enjoy collecting physical copies of albums, this deluxe edition of the album has not seen a physical release, only a digital one. It has yet to be seen whether or not there will be a physical release, but in this day and age when digital music seems to be most people's go-to, I honestly doubt it. (I did use Play Anywhere to create my own CD, however, especially since I enjoy listening to CDs in my car.) The first new track featured on the deluxe edition is "Happy Loner," a soft piano ballad in a similar vein as past songs such as "Numb," "Happy," and "Handmade Heaven." This one honestly took some time to grow on me. I like it a lot more than I did when I first heard it, although it's still honestly one of my lesser favorites from the album as a whole. I love how her vocals are a bit echoed and layered throughout the track, creating an atmospheric and ethereal effect. I especially love the chorus, especially when her vocals soar on the line "I'm sick of it all; I wanna give it up..." Somewhat similar to how she did on the FROOT track "Solitaire," MARINA addresses her appreciation for solitude, and the weird thing about this song is that I both vehemently relate to it and don't relate to it at all. In the bridge, for example, she sings that "I pick up on everybody's energy, always used to feel like there was something wrong with me." As an empath, I 100% understand and relate to that, but I handle my pain very differently than the speaker of this song seems to. I usually can't disconnect or else it gets worse. Even though I know that I run the risk of feeling like I am being a burden and am dragging others down, I usually feel incredibly hungry for companionship and comfort. The speaker of "Happy Loner" seems to feel the opposite, however: "When I'm alone, things are under control," she explains in the opening verse. "When I'm alone, I can turn off the world."
We then get the legendary "Pink Convertible," legendary because of how long it has been a part of fans' collective consciousness. Regarding the album as a whole, this song is definitely a huge standout for me. I absolutely loved the instrumental when that leaked (which I listened to for two reasons - (1) it was just an instrumental, and (2) I wasn't sure whether or not we were ever going to get a proper release, since, like I said, we still haven't of "I'm Not Hungry Anymore"), as it had this fantastical, otherworldly quality that reminded me a great deal of Diamandis' 2012 album Electra Heart. I still very much feel like the song has Electra Heart vibes, reminding me especially of tracks like "The State of Dreaming" and "Teen Idle." In fact, further clarifying why the track was cut from the initial release of ADIAML, MARINA wrote, "It was just very hard to narrow it down to 10 tracks + this one had a slightly different sonic edge to the other tracks," and as much as I adore "Pink Convertible," I agree that it has a different vibe than the album overall does. MARINA described the song (in a since deleted tweet) as "very Rodeo Drive Melting Handbags Apocalypse meets Let's Pretend It's All Fine," and if that's not the best description of a song ever, then such a thing doesn't exist. I love how there is definitely (as is typical of a lot of her music) a cynical storytelling approach taken to the song, as it is about people living in a blissful bubble in which they can ignore what is happening in and to the world around them: "I just wanna forget how fucked up is our planet." Despite that, however, its light guitar, keyboard, and harp create a dreamy, whimsical quality. I love that dichotomy, and although, like I said, it is sonically pretty different from a lot of what's on the album, it definitely fits thematically, as it is very thematically similar to songs like "Purge the Poison" and "New America."
"Free Woman" is the final new song that the deluxe offers, and it's my least favorite of the three, possibly even my least favorite on the album overall. Don't get me wrong; I by no means hate it, but it's just one of the weaker ones. It doesn't, for example, have the playfulness of "Purge the Poison," the depth or beauty of "Flowers," or the big soundscape of "New America." It's rather minimalist in its instrumentation and melody, although I do like how the instrumental seems to feature a bit of Western influence. Like "Pink Convertible," though, it definitely fits a lot of the album's themes, working as a sister song to feminist tracks such as "Venus Fly Trap" and "Man's World." On "Free Woman," Diamandis addresses patriarchal problems such as women being ridiculed as they age, being reduced to their physical appearance and their bodies, and being abused. She argues that she has risen above and that it doesn't bother her like it used to: "...You can't extinguish me," she asserts, "'cause I'm a free woman." This is the one song of the three new ones that, as far as I know, fans were not aware of until recently. The deluxe edition of the album also includes a demo version of "Venus Fly Trap" as well as a demo version of the title track, and it's very cool that she has officially released a couple of very raw and unpolished demos because I don't think that most artists would do that. (The "ADIAML" demo is especially very raw, with MARINA's vocals being muffled and tinny.) Some fans have compared the "Venus Fly Trap" demo to old-school MySpace and pre-TFJ MARINA, and I definitely hear that. Although part of me wishes that the Beach Bunny mix of "I Love You but I Love Me More" had also been included since I love that version and even prefer it to the album version, I am just so happy that this got released, especially because of "Pink Convertible" being included. (I am seeing MARINA live a second time in a couple of weeks and can't wait; I will definitely be reporting on that!)
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