Marina Diamandis was one of the artsiest and most interesting singers of the 2010s. Her debut, The Family Jewels, mixed an erratic singing style with ersatz instrumentation that pinned her as a Tori Amos or Fiona Apple protégé — which she threw all away for Electra Heart, her character-based electropop fantasy of fame and power. Then, written entirely by herself, 2015’s sleek FROOT signified a more mature, contemporary version of the star who can command a room with her powerful, operatic voice. But creativity and vision were discarded for 2019’s LOVE + FEAR, a bleak double album that had little trace of her former self. The front half of her most recent album, Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land, seemed to reinvigorate her previous work, but the rest was drippy balladry.

Her sixth album, PRINCESS OF POWER, arrives at a strange point in the Marina discography — its bright synths and high-energy beats represent a full-throttle approach to pop music, but substance is relatively rare. On the title track, she floats around a spacey soundscape and sings a career summation thus far: “I confused love with control / Love with manipulation.” All of that’s in the past, she says — “Stuck in a loveless generation / Ready to go through a transformation” — even though that’s where her best records lie.

The record’s best songs don’t take themselves too seriously. “BUTTERFLY” is a pretty ridiculous tune with the most obvious icon to signify a transformation, her pitched-up vocal resembling Melanie Martinez as she taunts, “Yeah, I’m a butterfly, you just never see my energy!” “CUPID’S GIRL” uses her full growl to torture the object of her affection, and “I <3 YOU” is undoubtedly the most catchiest thing on the record. (It’s also pretty funny to open the only disco song on your record saying “They’re all going to Y2K, we’re going to the 70s”). Even its put-on spoken verse (“Where are all the parties now? I wanna make my way around town!”) enhances the vibe.

“CUNTISSIMO”, with little shame, operates on a full-force mission to be a Pride anthem. “Your ex is hitting you up, but you no longer give a fuck,” she sings against pulsating synths, parodying Dua Lipa’s “New Rules” with bare-minimum lyricism that strives to be Instagrammed. (The song’s best line is actually the curious, “Do people still say YOLO?”, which is cheeky in a way her younger self would identify with). Gay guys saying ‘cunt’ is already past its breaking point, and Marina deploying it here is another recently common instance of being behind the curve.

PRINCESS OF POWER’s worst inflictions are career nadirs. “ROLLERCOASTER” is Gwen Stefani’s “Hollaback Girl” by way of British childhood, mixed with a Grimes-ish eeriness and electronic flourishes. As you might imagine, it’s not successful. “I wanna go on a rollacoasta,” Marina sings, “I wanna do things I’m not supposed tah,” punctuated by a series of grunts. It is a disarming and strange ode to life’s hedonistic pleasures (“I’ve been low, but I know I wanna get high”) but even more uncomfortable is “HELLO KITTY,” a sly love song that jams the couplet “Hunt you from afar like a jaguar / Till you say ‘Hello kitty, make me go rah-rah.” This is a ballad, by the way, and you might be surprised to learn each time she says ‘rah-rah’ is more excruciating than the last (14 times). It’s intensely jarring, as if you’ve just barged in on a couple having sex at a house party. “Oh, god, sorry!” you say, covering your ears, but Marina is still rah-rahing.

Less blasphemous missteps include “EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M SAD,” a phrase stretched into the jubilant post-chorus; it has the distinct feeling of a self-effacing joke landing on uninterested ears, like someone making too many suicide jokes, and no one wanting to hear it. That song’s lyrics are actually some of the record’s most honest yet (“Maybe I’m not built for this kind of connection,” she sings), it’s just completely eclipsed by internet slang and cheeky Tumblr-era mental health one-liners, one step away from resembling a “Lexapro Baddie” T-shirt. Same goes for “ADULT GIRL,” which is quite affecting until you get to that TikTok-diluted phrase. “DIGITAL FANTASY”, peppered with 8-bit jingles atop a reggaeton beat, explores online connection, something Kilo Kish did before in her 2022 record AMERICAN GURL. On the sly “JE NE SAIS QUOI,” Marina mistakes repetition of the phrase for the presence of it. The whole point of it is to be indescribable, but Marina sure tries her hardest.

It’s pretty unfortunate that Marina — whose trio of early 2010s records were striking, ingenuous dissections of identity, fame, and humanity — has fizzled out to create safe and bouncy alt-pop that never quite wants to reach to her previous heights. PRINCESS OF POWER seems like an odd simulacrum more than anything, someone attempting pop music. It has its moments of joy, but PRINCESS OF POWER might be a turning point in the legend of Marina Diamandis.

order Princess Of Power by Marina HERE