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After months of mystery and anticipation, alternative pop artist Melanie Martinez released her third studio album, PORTALS, last Friday. The album is a statement of rebirth, pushing the boundaries of Martinez’s style while retaining his signature sound and quirkiness.
The non-deluxe edition of 13 songs explores themes such as personal growth, self-love, living in the public eye, and heartbreak. The audio and visuals of PORTALS deliberately push the boundaries. It is a symbol of renewed confidence and urgency in the post-COVID-19 era.
Martinez is a performance artist, best known for fully integrating himself into his work by becoming the aesthetic expression of his albums. Her previous concepts for her albums (“Cry Baby” and “K-12,” released in her 2015 and her 2019 respectively) include her It had its own visual aesthetic.
Her past work has earned her the nickname ‘Cry Baby’ among her fans, releasing a ‘K-12’ feature film and referring to popular nursery rhymes and children’s activities in her song titles. And so on, built from childhood motifs. “Pity Party” and “Dollhouse”.
After a long post-pandemic hiatus, many fans feared Martinez would not return to music. With that in mind, it was just as fun and weird when Martinez completely erased all his social media posts and posted a video of a giant egg starting to crack in a fantasy swampy pink forest.
Martinez later reveals that it was her own rebirth that cracked the egg, but what emerged from the egg was a new being – a charming pink four-eyed alien creature. This new look was initially thought to be simply a cover of “PORTALS”, but it was later revealed that this was Martinez’s new look. He even performed in full costume at Lollapalooza.
Martinez’s commitment to embodying the dramatic rollout and “PORTALS” embodies the album’s true message. “PORTALS” takes listeners on Martinez’s journey of struggle, growth and self-discovery, from the death of his old self to the birth of his present self. The album’s name suggests a major shift from one life to the next.
“PORTALS” begins with “DEATH”, a song dedicated to the dismantling of oneself in the past. The lyrics proclaim, “I’m back from the dead, back from the dead.” This song choice to introduce the album boldly defines that new era as an era of change. Lyrically, the song reflects Martinez’s struggle with constant criticism and the weight of celebrity on her shoulders. In terms of sound, “DEATH” has a much darker sound, and “PORTALS” draws a line from the previous work.
Track two is perhaps the album’s most standout song, “VOID,” an upbeat, syncopated pop ballad that signifies a shift from one mindset to another. The song went viral before its release when he said on TikTok, “Pipe down with the noise, I can’t get my sadrow / I huge who before.” In this song, Martinez gets more personal, describing the loneliness and “hell” of maintaining a persona and eventual escape.
The album pushes the boundaries of Martinez’s traditional sound, incorporating jarring elements such as squelches, murmurs and bone cracks. Amidst this chaos, Martinez found a more techno and stylistically darker sound that played to the strengths of his previous music while maintaining the change and growth that inspired the album.
“PORTALS” describes Martinez finding himself in a metaphoric cloud of his former rebirth. From the first song “DEATH” to the 13th song “WOMB”, songs such as “SPIDER WEB” and “THE CONTORTIONIST” depict a dangerous journey of growth.
“SPIDER WEB” highlights the struggle to avoid being stuck in place, while “THE CONTORTIONIST” cites “I twisted all my limbs for you / Two in knots, two limbs He describes the literal and painful breakdown of body and soul through lines such as “I twisted the in a loop.
Aesthetically, thematically and sonically, PORTALS fuses the old with the new. Some recognizable elements of Martinez’s sound, such as syncopation and classical rhymes, are combined with synthpop and a rougher, grungier, darker tone.
Martinez has successfully transitioned seamlessly into this new era of freedom and self-expression while retaining the unique traits that have made her recognizable. ” has a message for everyone.
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