Album Review: "PRINCESS OF POWER" - MARINA

Ashley Adams
1 day ago
8 min read

“PRINCESS OF POWER” is the newest and sixth album from immensely talented singer, songwriter, and producer MARINA. It features songs of freedom, passion, and love with a video game concept represented in the lyrics and production.

T R A C K L I S T

She went by Marina and the Diamonds from 2005 to 2018, and released the albums The Family Jewels, Electra Heart, and FROOT, iconic works of art which formed a large majority of today’s pop stars and their music. When she changed her stage name to MARINA, she released LOVE + FEAR and Ancient Dreams In A Modern Land, spellbinding masterpieces that were about love and growth while living and loving life and also spoke about important issues around the world. It’s without a doubt that MARINA is one of the most important artists of the 21st century. She set the precedent for how pop music needs to be crafted, and serves as the inspiration for the music that either plays on radios everywhere or is streamed over and over again by millions of fans. In June 2025, she released PRINCESS OF POWER, yet another incredible record that proves its impossible for MARINA to make anything other than spectacular music.

PRINCESS OF POWER

An album about newfound freedom and embarking on fresh beginnings needs to come with a first track explaining just that; this is the embodiment of the album’s title track “PRINCESS OF POWER”. It starts off with strings as MARINA sings the introduction verse before the production jumps off a diving board and plunges into a pool of an up-beat and energetic bass and clap combination. As more of her hauntingly beautiful vocals pour in, so do drawn out and sci-fi-esque synths, akin to meditation music but is given a completely new meaning in the production of this song. In the chorus, more sound effects like this, as well as the strings returning, can be heard, and this continues for the rest of the track. The first step in rebirth is accepting that you need to move on from a past that held you back so you can move forward; this is the moral of the lyrics.
BUTTERFLY

The second track but first single for the album, "Butterfly", comes not only with infectious vocals and ethereal production, but with a leadup of genius marketing. To promote the song, preceding its release, MARINA sent select fans a caterpillar, with instructions on how to raise them until they enter metamorphosis, and finally become a butterfly. Soon after, the title of track and release date were revealed. Listening to the song feels like you're floating through the clouds, but another creative element of the song's whole presence is how MARINA's vocals are pitched-up in the chorus. Like a butterfly, MARINA sings about turning a new leaf, describing her past as being a caterpillar, and being in the present as a butterfly, or living a new and better life than before. She was able to achieve this by letting the toxic people in her life go, which enabled her to be free from the past and look forward to the present and future.
CUNTISSIMO

"issimo" is a suffix in Italian that means "very" in English, and is connected to words to add emphasis. So, of course, in the third track "CUTISSIMO", MARINA describes how her life is cuntissimo. She reassess her popstar power and wealth, the beauty of being single, the enjoys of going on holiday and traveling the world, and not without good friends alongside her. She feels free to do whatever she wants, an amazing feeling many people experience after leaving any toxic environment. While also romanticizing nature and self-indulgence, she says that this is "a way of life", and the song’s title is half-English and half-Italian because she "live[s] the American life" and "live[s] the Italian dream". While the term is actually "American dream", her writing "life" instead reverses that, where she subscribes to how most Americans live, but then not "settling down", which she refers to in the pre-choruses.
ROLLERCOASTER

One perhaps would not expect to hear a beat similar to the one that was used in “Hollaback Girl” by Gwen Stefani on a MARINA song, but then again, anything is possible. The term “roller coaster” used in the track is not an actual roller coaster, or maybe not just a roller coaster, but a metaphor for wanting to experience the beauty of life and all the happiness that comes with it. MARINA has jaw dropping vocals all throughout the album, but the way she can sing at such an incredibly high pitch during the chorus left me speechless the first time I listened to it, and most likely many other people as well. “ROLLERCOASTER” is like if walking in the sky on a sunny day was a song.
CUPID'S GIRL

Like “CUNTIMISSO”, the fifth track of the album also has a rapid, racing heartbeat-like beat that adds great intensity to the overall feeling of the song, and based on the title and lyrics, its the perfect choice of style for the production. MARINA equates herself to Cupid, a god who is able to make people fall in love no matter what with a shot of an arrow. Her singing about her love interest being unable to not have feelings for her can be seen as her shooting a “love arrow” at that person, where the feelings are so immense it feels as though their brain has told them they have no other choice but to fall for MARINA back. After each chorus, a synth that sounds like a siren plays, just one of the very distinct and creative elements of the song’s production.
METALLIC STALLION

Although MARINA has been living a new life in the previous tracks of “PRINCESS OF POWER”, she now sings about an ex that keeps emerging from her past, no matter how hard she tries to push them away. She details how they were toxic, and were not fit to be in a relationship, which is why it doesn’t make sense that they want her back so desperately, since it's been proven impossible to be with them. The production of the song is a gradual build up, like it's telling a story through sound. The beat doesn’t come in until the latter half of the song, which can be viewed as the rising action. Then, the drums that intensify towards the end, which sound like a horse galloping, or a “STALLION”, is the climax, and then the rest of the song is the falling action and resolution.
JE NE SAIS QOUI

The line “I’m so into you, you’re hotter than God” is all the proof needed to show you that this song is iconic. “JE NE SAIS QUOI” contains a lovely, elegant, and picturesque production amongst the lyrics of a love song of matching traits. MARINA experiences love at first sight, and before she can introduce herself or even interact with this person at all, she wonders what this person is like, and because they are so attractive, she hopes that they are her type in regards to their personality as well. The exciting moment and feeling of butterflies you get when you first get a crush and are anxious to talk to them are perfectly captured in this song.
DIGITAL FANTASY

Track eight of the album is about the disappointment that has come with being with someone who’s obsessed with the internet and not being present in the real world, and now has unrealistic expectations for their partner. They have learned how love works through fiction, whether it be movies or TV shows, and they think they know how to connect with others romantically, but they don’t. MARINA recognizes this and decides to leave this person because they are immature for this. Like the title, the song has 8-bit and video games sound effects and production, including MARINA’s voice having autotune to create a retro atmosphere.
EVERYBODY KNOWS I'M SAD

One of MARINA’s specialties is making fun and upbeat-sounding songs with sad lyrics, “EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M SAD” being one of them. She explains how she spends most days alone, and that it upsets her that she can’t spend time with others. She wants to, but finds it very hard to get out of the house and be able to do things. She has thoughts in which she believes she’s destined to be alone for the rest of her life, and she can’t find the will to go out. She feels very isolated because of this, causing her great sadness. She is aware that people know all of these things about her and that her not wanting to go out is making her feel bad.
HELLO KITTY

MARINA shares what she’s like and what her boundaries are on “HELLO KITTY”. She explains how she expresses her romantic feelings. What seems like a sequel to “EVERYBODY KNOWS I’M SAD”, MARINA is starting to open up to spending time with others again, something she was drifting away from because she’s been wronged in the past. In the tenth track, she sings about all of her attributes that any potential partner needs to know about her and accept and not judge before being able to be in a relationship with her. This track has a slow tempo and features the strums of a guitar and a very elegant and cute beat.
I <3 YOU

This song might as well be a time travel machine set for the era of disco, which is the overall theme of the song, the line “We’re going to the ‘70s””, adding to this. It’s like it was produced with the overall concept of the song sounding like a time capsule from the time period, with several different elements supporting this, including the production and the spoken second verse, as well as the lyrics, in which people are falling in love on the dance floor and the fun never seems to stop. Once again, MARINA showcases her amazing vocals, them being in a very high pitch again throughout almost the entire song, as she’s extremely talented.
ADULT GIRL

The penultimate track is a somber ballad, shedding light on how innocence can be taken away from a young age, and you mourn it as you grow older. It’s very easy to be thrown into a world that you aren’t prepared for yet, because the world you’ve been living in is hurting you and you have no other choice but to escape. There are important moments in adolescence that you have to miss out on that you didn’t know were going to happen, all because you didn’t want to be in pain anymore. Now that you’re older, you desperately wish you can go back and relive the time when you were younger and do things over, but you can’t, so all you can do is feel bad and reminisce on what you weren’t able to have.
FINAL BOSS

The final track, aptly titled “FINAL BOSS”, fights back against those who think and act as though they’re more powerful than you, when in reality they’re not. Whether the lyrics are directed towards a person or multiple people, it retains the overall message of not letting people use you and treat you as less than, and to call those people out if they try to. This is another song on the album that features video game and sci-fi inspired production, which is supplemented by the lines “Finish him!”, “Thank you, Mario // But our princess is in another castle”, and “Game over”. The songs that were like this track greatly represented the video game concept for this album.

I’ve listened to every MARINA album, and this is by far her greatest record yet. To outdo yourself every time you release an album is a feat not many have accomplished, but MARINA seems to do effortlessly whenever she makes music. Having a hand in all aspects of her songs, including writing and producing, shows how dedicated she is to her craft. She was born to be a popstar, with her endless musical abilities, inspirational storytelling, and insane vocal talent, as well her overall aesthetics that she has been able to pull off for every album era she’s done. I’ve been a huge MARINA fan for many years, and I didn’t think I could be even more of a fan than I already was, but PRINCESS OF POWER was able to do just that.

Written By Ashley Adams

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