With “Butterfly” under her belt as the first single from MARINA’s forthcoming sixth album, she’s seen fit to bring listeners another taste of what’s to come with “Cupid’s Girl.” In many regards, it embodies the same kind of confidence showcased on “Butterfly,” except that rather than “reflecting inward,” MARINA is setting her sights outward, on another. Specifically, Cupid a.k.a. Eros. For, yes, it is very much “on brand” for MARINA to think up a unique “gimmick” for storytelling through songwriting (famously reinventing the wheel on that front with 2012’s Electra Heart). In this instance, speaking from the perspective of someone who is, for once, going to give Cupid a taste of his own foul medicine. That is to say, the poison arrow of love. Because it always turns out to be poison in the end, doesn’t it? Or, as HAIM recently phrased it on “Relationships,” “Fucking relationships/Don’t they end up all the same?”
Whether or not it all falls to pieces is irrelevant to MARINA, acting as a sort of villainous female version of Cupid (himself a villain, depending on who you ask)—his non-Aphrodite/Venus counterpart (because that would be incestuous, and the world can only take so much incest in pop culture in a single year [see: The White Lotus]). So it is that she sets the stage with the somewhat ominous pre-chorus, “Shoot you down with an arrow like ‘dun-dun-dun’/Make your heart beat faster like ‘boom-boom-boom’/‘Cause you know you want me and you cannot resist/Yeah, I’m looking for a lover and you’re top of my list.”
The sentiment behind such cocksureness is reminiscent of certain 80s hits (from fellow Brits) by Pet Shop Boys and Dead or Alive. Namely, PSB’s “I Want a Lover” and Dead or Alive’s “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record).” In the lyrics to the former, Neil Tennant sings, “At this time of night, when the crowds have passed/We’re the last to leave, we need some company/No need to look so shy, don’t even wonder why/You know the reason that we need this company/I’ve been sitting here, looking out for you/Someone just like me, who’s maybe had a drink or two.” The predatory nature of that description is also present in the more to the point lyrics of Dead or Alive, with Pete Burns singing, “I set my sights on you (and no one else will do)/And I, I’ve got to have my way now, baby.”
MARINA bears a similarly, for lack of a better term, “rape-y” vibe when she insists, “Cupid/You’re so stupid/Trying to resist/My kiss/But you know I’ll never miss/Baby, you just need to relax/Don’t panic when it hits/Shoot my arrow right into your back.” Filled with innuendo, there’s a strong possibility that MARINA is flipping the script on how it feels to be pursued so relentlessly, since most men don’t know how uncomfortable it can make a woman feel (unlike Taylor Swift, most women can’t honestly say, “I’ve been the archer/I’ve been the prey,” mainly veering solely into the latter category). What with them being so accustomed to playing the role of dick-swinging pursuer. But with “Cupid’s Girl,” MARINA turns that trope on its ear, adding a certain David Bowie flourish (think: “China Girl,” when he says, “Oh, baby, just you shut your mouth”—even if he’s imitating the “China girl” saying that to him) with the lyrics, “I wanna show you how to trust/Want you to see what love is/I wanna show you happiness/So you don’t have to fear it.” Never mind that MARINA’s interpretation of “happiness” might not necessarily be the object of her desire’s.
The 80s influence is also evident in the music itself, co-produced by MARINA and CJ Baran (who worked with Melanie Martinez on both Cry Baby and Portals, hence, some listeners accusing MARINA of “reheating her nachos” on “Butterfly”). Thus, the up-tempo, electro-drenched rhythm lending an added sense of urgency to MARINA’s need to be with Cupid. Whose name, naturally, she can’t avoid rhyming with “stupid.” The tried-and-true lyrical couplet ever since Connie Francis declared, “Stupid Cupid, stop picking on me” (reinvigorated by Mandy Moore in 2001’s The Princess Diaries).
Elsewhere, however, MARINA is wholly original. Particularly as she opens the song with the “on the prowl” verse, “I’m gonna fall in love tonight/I’ve got my bow and arrow/My heart-shaped eyes are burning bright/I’ve got you in my sight/You’re looking at my wings and by the look in your eyes/You’ve got an appetite/My love is ready to take flight/So dance into the light.” In short, MARINA showed up to the bar or club with lust in her heart that she’s determined to parlay into l’amour (a mistake many women have made the morning after what is doomed to remain a one-night stand). And she wants Cupid to know that not only is she “game” to fall in love, but that he’s met his superior match in her. An evidently seasoned archer in her own right (as the accompanying visualizer would like to make known).
The playful, yet totally-in-control tone that MARINA maintains throughout is complemented by the fun, frothy backbeat, which often sounds like something you would hear in a video game or movie soundtracking a car chase (move over, Charli XCX’s “Speed Drive”). And there is, to be sure, a chase afoot. A merciless hunt that will, in the end, find MARINA hitting her mark…regardless of whether he wanted to be or not. Again, Cupid finally gets a taste of his own medicine, courtesy of MARINA.
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