While it is said that everyone is trapped inside the prison of their own mind, perhaps that statement rings far truer for the loner. More prone to requiring alone time as a result of being introverted and needing to restore their energy by not being around other people. Energy-draining forces that they are.
As the first bonus track from the deluxe edition of Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land to be granted a video, some might have expected MARINA to give us a steeped-in-nature visual in the style of Britney Spears’ “I’m Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman” or Billie Eilish’s “Your Power” (which rips off the former). Instead, she decided not to go very grandiose for the introvert/misanthrope anthem. Accordingly, the video is shot in black and white by director Brendan Walter, opening with MARINA staring earnestly at us through the camera as she laments, “Wakin’ up late/I feel demotivated/Everything’s wrong, guess my thoughts escalated.”
And yet, her thoughts might escalate even more were she expected to confront the outside world. Which is why, amid the black backdrop of the video, intermittent animation (colorful and, let’s say, 80s-inspired—maybe even Lisa Frank-esque) show up when we’re meant to understand that being alone isn’t total blackness and despair for everyone. In fact, it can often be the only sweet release in this constantly “on,” media-overloaded existence.
With a close-up still on her face, multi-colored lyrics like, “I can’t live a conventional life” pop up (yes, this refers to the convention of “being sociable”). And when she sings, “Emotionally, I’m on the edge of a knife,” animated yellow tears stream down her face in an editing aesthetic that seems to prove everyone has been influenced by Prequel now.
At the one-minute, thirty-seven-second mark, we finally see a medium shot of MARINA against the backdrop of whirling graphics that appear to want to mimic the synesthesiac’s interior mind. While it might not quite do that, it does give an overall “inside the mind” feel. As though MARINA is in a “sunken place”—but in a good way, if that makes sense.
What’s more, the video bears the same kind of simplicity as the ones she created for the acoustic versions of “Superstar,” “True” and “Karma.” Granted, she might have put more effort into the costuming for those, whereas in “Happy Loner,” it looks like she’s wearing elegant silk pajamas. But maybe that, too, is part of the commentary on the comfortableness of being alone.
Just as it was in The Wizard of Oz, there’s a moment (around the two-minute, six-second mark) when everything turns to color for MARINA. Specifically when she sings, “I pick up on everybody’s energy” (surprisingly, she’s not a Pisces, but a Libra). “Mmmm-ing” in that way Madonna does on “Secret” and “Frozen,” MARINA concludes the video with another close-up on her visage as she does this siren-like hum, only to walk away from the camera. Perhaps back out into the world or even deeper into the recesses of her mind, depending on how you look at it.
