As MARINA continues to unlock the singles from both sides of her thematically titled LOVE + FEAR album (not to be confused with Mrs. Farmer’s rigid lesson plan in Donnie Darko), “Orange Trees” offers yet another glimpse into just how attuned to and at one with nature MARINA is (even more so than when last we heard her Mother Earth-themed lyrics on 2015’s Froot).
Paying homage to her big-time Greek roots (her last name is Diamandis, after all), MARINA returns to the Ionian island where her father hails from, Lefkada, for the “Orange Trees” video. Once again directed by Sophie Muller (who also puppeteered the visuals for MARINA’s first single from LOVE + FEAR, “Handmade Heaven,” and so many of the same superimposing effects are present), the picturesque backdrops and vibrant color schemes (further enhanced by MARINA’s various eyeliner/shadow palettes) punctuate a track that beckons the summer to not only hurry up and get here, but to stay forever–as it usually does in our hearts. To this point, it’s only natural that MARINA and Lana Del Rey (a well-known believer in conjuring summer imagery in many of her songs–not just “Summertime Sadness”) are like sisters from another mister in their sun-worshipping goddess shtick.
Soaking up the literal color against an orange wall or a sea of flowers, MARINA evidences just how much that Greek island remains a part of her very core, singing, “So far away, from neon lights and city streets/This is where I used to dream/Been around the world, but I could never replicate/The feeling that I get beneath my feet”–the one that can only come whilst she’s in Greece, “livin’ like we’re supposed to be.” That is to say, “Flowers in my hair, I belong by the sea/Where we used to be, sittin’ by the orange trees/Summer in the air, bodies in the heat/Just you and me, sittin’ by the orange trees.” In essence, only in the simplicity of nature can we feel the closest to freedom. To unburdenedness.
This, of course, is in direct contrast to the only other representation of Greece we have in pop culture right now, Lohan Beach Club. Set in Mykonos, Lindsay Lohan attempts the role “girlboss” to the tune of high (manufactured) drama that heavily relies on the predictable antics of her “VIP hosts” from the U.S. To give some sense of the dichotomy between how MARINA, with actual Greek heritage (as opposed to Lindsay, who seems to be forever hiding out from her Hollywood demons), presents the country, when Lindsay isn’t shooting champagne out of a gun or dancing to her own antiquated music (“Rumors”), one of her employees is likely sticking bread up his crack on a public beach or punching another VIP host in the face.
So yes, it is rather refreshing to have MARINA bring Greece back to a more grounding reality with this video, though her decision to wear a green sequined evening gown in the middle of the day might be in keeping with something Lohan might do to effectively evince the “simple” glamor of one of the most bankrupt countries in Western Europe. Until the tourism flows in as a result of these two divergent spokeswomen.
