photo by Chris Jensen; photo courtesy of Marina V
Album Review of Marina V: Labyrinthine Rose
It has been way too long since I’ve written about Marina V. Longtime blog readers know about her amazing talent – and you’re all fans now, right? – but she keeps recording and releasing great new music, including her recent, powerful studio album Labyrinthine Rose. Most people have probably heard Marina V sing somewhere without realizing it – she’s placed several songs in TV shows and movies – so even if you don’t know that you’ve ever heard her before, you’re probably really already halfway to being a fan. Trust me, one listen to Labyrinthine Rose will push you over the top, seal the deal, drive it home. Choose your figure of speech.
Now, Marina has a trademark sound. Her strong yet soft-touch, often sultry, vocals atop a flowing musical backdrop. It sounds so simple, and yet her specific delivery is something no one else can quite match, which is why she has a cadre of exceptionally loyal fans. It’s the way she strings together phrases, changing tempo and emotion atop a flowing, often somewhat orchestral musical backdrop. When on a Marina V music binge, it becomes easy to forget that, while most of Marina’s songs are so stylistically cohesive, they stand out as incredibly unique when part of a multi-artist playlist. She really is one of a kind.
Of course, even just among songs in Marina’s trademark style, the unique tempos, lyrical messages, and nuances in the songs make each stand out. Within and beyond Marina’s core style, she also frequently breaks out of her musical comfort zone, exploring a variety of influences and songwriting and performance techniques, stretching and challenging herself rather than “merely” sticking to her easily identifiable soaring vocals and smooth pianowork – a helluva fine comfort zone to begin with, I might add. Indeed, many of my favorite Marina V songs are the ones where she blends disparate musical influences, including pop, rock, and metal elements, with her central soft pop-rock style. Her soaring numbers are so good, but Unlike so many of the other best soft pop-rock balladeers, Marina is far from a one-note – or one-tempo – artist.
image courtesy of Marina V
It seems I’m 350 words into this review, and all I’ve mentioned about Marina’s new album is its title, so I’ll stop hyping one of my favorite artists – the artist I reviewed as article number five in the nine-part “The Road Back to Music Journalism” series I wrote to launch the blog back in 2015, I might add – and tell you about her latest studio album, Labyrinthine Rose.
Marina starts things off gently with piano and a naked vocal on the album-opening title track before the full instrumentation kicks in. “Labyrinthine Rose” slowly builds until you realize you’re in the midst of, musically, a richly orchestrated number and, lyrically, a powerful metaphor, as you’ve been distracted the whole time by the soft, sometimes breathy vocals’ slow build. It’s pretty cool sequencing of musical elements, building from nothing to power through most of the last portion of the song, each build setting you up for the next one.
“Symphony & Metal” also starts out with a similar piano and vocal opening, but it builds into a much more rockin’ onslaught relatively early in the song, as you might expect with rock legends Bruce Kulick (guitar) and David Ellefson (bass) being featured on this song. Listen, in fact, for Kulick’s kickass late-song solo, but also how well it and the song overall integrate with Marina’s always-amazing pianowork. In any case, remember what I wrote about Marina’s versatility? Yeah, this is a classic metal ballad. You know, a little faster-paced than you’d expect a ballad to be, but it has a little softer touch than the heavier songs, with a comparatively slower tempo and a guitar solo – heck, always a guitar solo – so when we were young, we’d slow-dance to it anyway. What about now? Well, there’s no age at which you can’t slow-dance to a classic metal ballad.
photo by Don Adkins; photo courtesy of Marina V
“Morning Light,” next, is a truer ballad. Or slow song, anyway. It’s thoughtful, with musical tension-building sequences that make the whole song seem as uneasy and tense as it is soaringly beautiful. Then “Daughter Song” follows, a song I suspect all mothers can relate to, while the rest of us can simply enjoy the swaying tempo, nifty swirling pianowork, and heartfelt vocals in this orchestrally sweeping slow ballad.
“Ready to Live Again,” next, is a song that bursts forth, a song that, while Marina wrote it from a place of specific personal experience, is one many of us can probably relate to, at least from a broader perspective, as we relate it to places and times in our own lives. I find the key line in the chorus – essentially, the song’s title – to be a particularly powerful, self-motivating lyric, especially thanks to the assertiveness Marina delivers it with. “If I Fade Away” is another ballad, this one a bit more haunting and, of course, no less beautiful because that’s just how Marina V ballads are.
photo by Chris Jensen; photo courtesy of Marina V
“Shine Again (It Gets Better)” starts from a low place emotionally with the appropriately subdued vocals and music, both of which build alongside the song’s lyrical encouragement. Marina even mentions in her song notes that it’s a song of encouragement for her, personally, that helps her power through tough times. Clearly, that’s lyrically true, but it’s also true musically, as the song marches forward, with increasingly uplifting tone and tempo. Not that I’m ever surprised, but Marina’s songwriting nuances are still something to marvel at sometimes.
“Minute in Time” is another one of those richly instrumented, rising ballads that’ll strike a chord with a segment of her audience, highlighting living in the now. Also, among the songs in this collection, it features some of the clearest instances of Marina nailing noticeably higher notes, making the delivery as impressive as the songwriting.
Marina does a great job of expressing darkness – or, at least, forebodingness (it’s a word if I say it is!) – in her pianowork. Indeed, does just that on “Never Let Go of Hope,” written as a theme song for Bill Adler’s sci-fi short story, Sakura Petals. I mean, the opening lyrics are “The lightning strikes across the skies. The earth, it growls before it dies.” So yeah, that’s pretty dark. Yet the song evolves into a message encouraging hope. There are a lot of soft-touch vocals and twinkling keyboardwork in the song, but the headline story here is the major builds to power, softening in places, yet always pushing higher and more powerful with each new verse, landing softly with the final lyrics, “never let go of hope.” I’m inclined now to read the short story, with the assumption that the song may hit even harder if I know the plot.
photo by Angel Gomez; photo courtesy of Marina V
Though so many of Marina’s song topics are thoughtful and heavy, some of them are instead thoughtful and light. “My Impossible” is one of those happier numbers. I mean, it’s not entirely bereft of struggles. Rather, it’s about achieving one’s dreams; in this case, it’s an ode to the love of the singer’s life helping encourage and inspire her to achieve her dreams. It’s a terrifically uplifting song, inspiring and joyful, one of my favorites on this record.
The penultimate song is a Russian-language number, “Птица Счастья/Bird of Happiness,” and while it’s sweet and beautiful – soaring with vocals mostly just supported by Marina’s painowork – if you read the liner notes about this Russian-Ukranian song, you’ll tear up at what it means personally to Marina when she performs it.
Marina closes the record with another deeply personal song, “Particles in the Air,” a song written for her late father, encompassing both the emotions of his passing and the idea that he may still be there when needed in the “particles in the air.” Indeed, I’m usually sniffling a little by the time this song ends, it’s so touchingly performed and carries a concept I want to believe is true about my own father. And with that, whew! It’s a powerful record!
To circle back to my initial comments, though, Labyrinthine Rose is similar to but different than Marina’s preceding releases. Like all great artists, it’s another step in a lifelong musical evolution. While, as a pianist, Marina maintains the keys as the core of the songs on this album, full symphonic arrangements are much more prominent on Labyrinthine Rose than in Marina’s prior work (or at least much more noticeable, since I’m going on memory, but that’s impression they’ve made upon me), perhaps most of all on “Symphony & Metal.” Indeed, as is so often the case for the best albums, there’s a cohesive thread throughout, an ebb and flow from song to song, enough variety to keep the listener enraptured from beginning to end, and an evolutionary step forward for the artist. Obviously, Marina’s biggest fans have all already have this record memorized. But if you’ve enjoyed her music in the past, it’s time to check back in. And if you haven’t heard Marina V’s music before, well, you’re in for a real treat!
But wait, there’s more!
Marina is about to release another new album, One Take, a recorded-in-one-take album of songs spanning Marina’s career, with a limited run of just 100 CDs and 100 vinyl records. The vinyl is available via Marina’s online store, here, where Marina also shares a little of the album’s backstory. CDs of One Take are available from this website.
