Marina Reveals New Album, ‘Princess of Power': Why She's ‘Not Guarding Her Heart So Much'
Marina wants you to meet the Princess of Power, the love-radiating heroine of her new album. The cult-favorite pop queen has revealed full details of her sixth studio album, Princess of Power, out June 6, and released its third single, 'Cuntissimo,' ahead of her main stage Coachella performance on Friday, April 11.
'We are meeting a Marina who is not guarding her heart so much anymore,' she tells Rolling Stone. 'I think part of why this album has felt so freeing is that I think I've really dove into my fear of love. That's why for me, it's so powerful that this superheroine's biggest power is love.'
More from Rolling Stone
Pulp Return With First Album in 24 Years, 'More'
PinkPantheress Is Back in Her Mixtape Era With 'Fancy That' Track List Reveal
Wet Leg Are Back With a Vengeance (And a New Album) on Latest Single 'Catch These Fists'
She adds: 'It can sound trite, but the ability to love is so powerful and brave. It's a courageous thing, particularly if you've been hurt in the past. It can be really hard to reprogram yourself, and I've finally been able to do that.'
Marina sees Princess of Power, which she recorded with producer CJ Baran, as reflecting something true about her inner self. 'Maybe to others, I've had a bold energy. Internally, I've always struggled to feel like I'm allowed to be my own person,' she says. 'The album is about teaching yourself — or re-teaching yourself — how to love.'
The single she dropped along with the album announcement, 'Cuntissimo,' is an anthemic pop song inspired by glamorous, brave, confident women 'who enjoy life to the max.' As she says this, Marina scrolls through a list of queens who embody 'Cuntissimo' on her phone — Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren, Madonna, and Rihanna among them.
'That's really key: pleasure,' Marina says. 'Throughout the centuries, it's been denied us that freedom to be silly and messy. Women have been under such a strict patriarchal power for so long, but this is just like, 'Fuck you.''
She pauses before adding: 'I want women to not be afraid to age. I think it's not talked about in pop. Pop pretends it's not happening. We are getting older. But I don't want to feel ashamed about it or feel like I have to cling on to youth.'
In some ways, the song recalls themes from her first album, 2010's Family Jewels, on which she sang about how 'girls are not meant to fight dirty/Never look a day past 30.' (The song's video drops Friday morning.)
On Friday night, Marina will debut 'Cuntissimo' live during her Coachella set, 10 years after she last played the fest in 2015. She'll perform her three Princess of Power singles and play some fan-favorite deep cuts — 'Are You Satisfied' and 'Oh No!' among them. But ultimately, 'People want bangers,' she says. 'I want to give that energy.'
Stylistically, the set will reflect the pastels — teals, pinks, baby yellows — that accompany her new album's aesthetic, as seen on its corset-and-ribbon-adorned album cover, continuing on the album's themes of female power and fearless love.
'I had no intention to do a pop record. But I found my creative partner CJ Baran who is just so talented and it's just been such an enjoyable experience,' she says. 'I think that's why the energy of this record feels different: It's part of my evolution as a human being. it's a really fun record. It has a lot of energy.'
Best of Rolling Stone
The 50 Greatest Eminem Songs
All 274 of Taylor Swift's Songs, Ranked
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
6 hours ago
- Yahoo
Pulp are in a different class at euphoric Manchester Co-op Live gig
Red velvet curtains are swept across the Co-op Live Arena stage, as a sold out crowd feverishly await the arrival of alt rockers Pulp in the uncharacteristically tropical heat of Manchester on Saturday night. A sultry voice booms out: "This show is an encore… An encore happens because the audience wants more." It couldn't be a more fitting introduction to a band that are back, not on some mere nostalgia trip, but with a number one album to celebrate. READ MORE: 'I put my USB stick in and then they just told me they were shutting it down' READ MORE: Oasis reunion tour merchandise price list revealed including bucket hats and T-shirts - full list That album - More - has also conveniently produced some of the finest music of the band's extensive career so far. It makes for some standout moments, like the upbeat singalong of Got To Have Love, alongside the belting Pulp anthems fans are lusting for in this euphoric dazzler of a show. Emerging with cardboard cutouts of the band from their 90s prime, it serves to spotlight frontman Jarvis Cocker as the unchanging, gangly-limbed talisman at the band's heart - the elbows and hips jutting at will beneath his velvet flared suit. His chat between songs (and often in songs) is the illuminating narration to a night that feels like an epic celebration of everything the Sheffield band have achieved since their earliest incarnation in the early 1980s. Naturally Jarvis can "remember the first time" he performed here - at The Pavillion at Salford University in 1982, before adding: "in actual Manchester it was later that year at The Boardwalk does that still exist?" He asks the crowd to a resounding chorus of "no." "But do you know what tonight is the very first time we've played here," he says, looking around at the vast cavern of Co-op Live - packed to the rafters with delirious fans. The last time they played here in Manchester, two years ago at Castlefield Bowl, was to around 7,000 fans, and now here we are with 23,000. It feels like the momentum continues to build around the reunited band that hit its first high in the Britpop era of the 1990s. They remain in a different class though (if you'll pardon the album pun) - indeed this performance is a sheer masterclass in how to elate a crowd, romping as it does through hits and fan favourites to an inevitable, soaring, dancing, pulsating high of Mis-shapes and then Common People. It's all played out across a visually-arresting stage set with lit staircase and a large video backdrop. For The Fear we get perhaps the most impressive deployment you're ever likely to see of those air dancer men, usually seen on garage forecourts, who manage to give Jarvis a run for his money in the body twisting stakes. We have a full-on rave for Sorted for Es and Whizz, indie disco vibes for Disco 2000, and Jarvis becomes like a James Bond villain for the epic, throbbing pounds of This is Hardcore. He is spotlit on a leather chair, before creeping out to stalk the stage and rasp out the dark, delicious lyrics of the 1998 slow-burner in one of the highlights of this show for me. He is ever the playful and often hilarious showman, chucking out grapes and chocolates to the audience at one point, before a crowd walk-through later in the show where more goodies are fed to the yearning arms on the arena floor. "That was tea bags I was handing out," he explains back on stage. "Not condoms". The show plays in two parts, which is unusual for live gigs these days, but it allows for the satisfying endnotes of Sunrise in the first half, celebrating the summer solstice, and Sunset as the encore. And in returning to the stage after the interval, we get the lovely vignette of Jarvis alongside Nick Banks, Mark Webber and Candida Doyle to perform an acoustic Something Changed, after Jarvis explains how this latest band incarnation reunited after a get together in 2022. The band's songs retain an intoxicating power, speaking as they so often do of missed chances, mundane moments, heartbreak and of growing up that make us who we are today. They also have an abilitiy to speak to the masses in an extraordinary way - probably because we all feel a bit like those misshapes, mistakes and misfits. Looking out at the sea of bodies across the Co-op Live Arena, jumping as one to Babies and Common People, ensured this was a night no-one here will forget. Just as the voiceover at the start of this show promised it would be. Part one Spike Island Grown Ups Slow Jam Sorted for Es and Whizz Disco 2000 F.E.E.L.I.N.G. C.A.L.L.E.D. L.O.V.E. Help the Aged Tina Farmers Market This is Hardcore Sunrise Part two Something Changed The Fear OU Pink Glove (fans' choice) Acrylic Afternoons Do You Remember the First Time? Mis-Shapes Got to Have Love Babies Common People Encore Sunset
News24
a day ago
- News24
Sabrina Carpenter triggers backlash with racy photos ahead of her new album
Pop star Sabrina Carpenter has raised eyebrows by posting some very racy photos ahead of the release of her new album. Her seventh studio album, Man's Best Friend, will be out on 29 August. Fans of the 26-year-old singer, who just released the single, Manchild from the upcoming album, have been divided on the recently posted album art – a photograph of Sabrina, on her hands and knees, wearing a short black dress with heels, as an unseen man grabs her hair. 'Am I the only one who thinks this is dehumanising for women?' a social media user wrote. Another said she believed in women owning their sexuality and feeling powerful in their bodies, 'but a woman on all fours with a man pulling her hair isn't empowering. It mirrors the very objectification we're trying to break free from'. Sabrina responded to one X user after the person retweeted her album art and asked, 'Does she have a personality outside of sex?' saying, 'Girl yes and it is goooooood.' Sabrina has also faced backlash for her recent Rolling Stone cover where she poses nude with pair of white stockings as her long blonde hair and arms cover her. The former Disney child star has also been accused of being over-sexualised and inappropriate during her current Short n' Sweet tour which runs until November. For her concerts Sabrina wears glittery corsets, garter belts, lacy baby doll nighties and has very intimate choreography. When she performs her song Juno, she sings, 'Wanna try out some freaky positions? Have you ever tried this one?' and acts out sex positions. At the end of the song, Bed Chem, she lies on a heart-shaped bed, staging intercourse with a male dancer behind a curtain. | 'Fight's not over' – Justin Baldoni is still hitting back at Blake Lively's sex-pest claims 'It's always so funny to me when people complain. They're like, 'All she does is sing about this'. But those are the songs that you've made popular,' she told Rolling Stone. 'Clearly you love sex. You're obsessed with it. It's in my show. There's so many more moments than the Juno positions but those are the ones you post every night and comment on. I can't control that.' Sabrina says she finds irony and humour in all the criticism and that she isn't bothered by people's opinions. 'I don't want to be pessimistic but I truly feel like I've never lived in a time where women have been picked apart more and scrutinised in every capacity. I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about every female artist that is making art right now,' she said. 'It's definitely not always great and I don't always feel like I know what's happening. I feel like I have some clarity on what I want, at least for the near future, which is rare. I'm so lucky to be in a place right now where I feel present.'
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
‘28 Years Later': What the Critics Are Saying
After more than two decades, director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland have returned to the world of the infected with 28 Years Later, the long-incubating sequel to 2002's 28 Days Later. The film hosted its world premiere in London on Wednesday, with reviews from critics arriving shortly after — and so far the results are strong. With 78 reviews in, it stands at 95 percent critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes. More from The Hollywood Reporter Danny Boyle Talks '28 Years Later' Trilogy Plan, Turning Down 'Alien' and the Time '127 Hours' Made Pixar Animators Faint '28 Years Later' Review: Jodie Comer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson in Danny Boyle's White-Knuckle Sequel to His Apocalyptic Game-Changer Jodie Comer and Ralph Fiennes Talk Danny Boyle's Genius at '28 Years Later' World Premiere: "It's Horror, but I Was Struck by How Moved I Was" Read on for a sampling of what critics are saying about the film, which opens Friday and stars newcomer Alfie Williams, Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes. The Hollywood Reporter's David Rooney wrote, 'One of the chief rewards of 28 Years Later is that it never feels like a cynical attempt to revisit proven material merely for commercial reasons. Instead, the filmmakers appear to have returned to a story whose allegorical commentary on today's grim political landscape seems more relevant than ever. Intriguing narrative building blocks put in place for future installments mean they can't come fast enough.' Rolling Stone's David Fear wrote in his review of Boyle, 'That he simply didn't retroactively ruin the first film by releasing a new franchise-expanding, Easter-egg hunt of an entry just for the sake of it would've been enough. Yet the filmmaker and his collaborators have also deepened their vision of a world on the brink, adding in strong elements of British folk horror, anxiety over good-old-days nationalism and an emphasis on what happens to a generation growing up in the shadow of normalized chaos.' Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Jordan Hoffman opined, 'Stylistically, Boyle throws a lot of things into a blender here, and somehow it all works. Early scenes intercut stock footage of Brittania propaganda films, which has no other motivation than to provide a vibe. Every kill of an infected slams on the brakes with a freeze frame, and the editing takes an occasionally cavalier approach to presenting sequences linearly, opting instead for a flush of sensation.' In his review for New York magazine, Bilge Ebir questioned if the film was hurt by it needing to set up a trilogy, with the critic writing, 'Despite several moving moments, and excellent performances from Fiennes and Taylor-Johnson, the film has an omnibus quality that makes it feel like a collection of loosely connected ideas instead of something that coheres into an actual vision, or even a story. Maybe it'll all come together in the end. Or maybe it's not supposed to. After all, what would be more appropriate for our moment than a franchise movie that devolves into a series of anguished and disjointed screams? 28 Years Later is choppy, muddled, strange, and not always convincing. But I'm not sure I'll ever forget it.' IndieWire's David Ehrlich writes in his review, 'with more earnest grace than any films have tried to humanize zombies before, 28 Years Later is increasingly preoccupied with the idea that the difference between 'us' and 'them' is only a matter of perspective. Honestly, I cringed at the movie's first indications that it was going to explore how the infected have evolved (so boring, so far removed from the primitivism of the original), but Garland's script iterates on that concept in such radical and unexpected ways that I couldn't help but surrender to its potential.' I09's Germain Lussier writes that the world-building answered questions he never thought to ask about a zombie-infected world: 'What would 28 years without humans do to an ecosystem? What human mistakes may have lingered over that time? What, if any, human traits do the zombies still carry with them? Is there a zombie pecking order? 28 Years Later consistently fires on all cylinders but then also hits you with a moment or idea that pushes things to a whole new level, and you almost wish there was a whole movie just about that.' The Associated Press' Jake Coyle took issue with a visual style he called 'frequently gratingly disjointed,' but concluded, 'Buried in here are some tender reflections on mortality and misguided exceptionalism, and even the hint of those ideas make '28 Years Later' a more thoughtful movie than you're likely to find at the multiplex this time of year. This is an unusually soulful coming-of-age movie considering the number of spinal cords that get ripped right of bodies.' Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson writes, 'Three quarters of the way through, 28 Years Later slows the horror to become a rumination on death's inevitability and life's carrying on even in the grips of calamity. It's poignant in an odd way, positioned as it is in what is ostensibly a horror film. Really, Boyle's film is more post-apocalyptic anthropology than anything else, an alluring peer into a near future in which humanity is at a fraught crossroads. Which isn't to say that the film isn't frightening. There are myriad unbearably tense and disturbing scenes, steeped in the impossible dread of being stuck somewhere far from safety, surrounded by unseen things lurking in the shadows.' Best of The Hollywood Reporter 13 of Tom Cruise's Most Jaw-Dropping Stunts Hollywood Stars Who Are One Award Away From an EGOT 'The Goonies' Cast, Then and Now
