MARINA’s “Butterfly” Doesn’t Earn Its Wings

Graphic by Kristen Lee

by Sofia Giarrusso

“album six,” MARINA tweeted last July. Fans rejoiced, including me. We waited as she promoted her allegedly subpar poetry book. Time passed, and the year changed. And now, MARINA is officially back in the music game with “Butterfly.” And it’s … definitely a song that she definitely sang. 

“Butterfly” is a parody of pop. Sanitized to oblivion. It tries its darndest to be an earworm, another TikTok audio that will blow up like the rest, but alas.

The track comes in with a tinge immediately reminiscent of Eurodance staple, "Around the World (La La La La La)" by ATC. Unfortunately for MARINA, Ava Max reclaimed that sound four years ago. Simple lyricism follows as the singer mimics the titular butterfly, doing all the things a butterfly, unshockingly, does: growing, floating, flying, and so on. MARINA has always been known for her reflective, often kitschy storytelling, yet “Butterfly” hits the nail on the head, over … and over … and over again. We get it. Rebirth. Fly away little butterfly, fly away. 

MARINA exhales through an often strained head-voice almost exclusively on “Butterfly.” This, like the lyricism, loses charm exponentially. The most egregious aspect of the track is its chorus, which features the vocals distorted in a childlike manner. To put it plainly, these segments feel like a parody song from The Other Two or even Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, if we’re getting classy. Then just as human-adult MARINA’s falsetto swoops back in to whisk the robot-kid voices away, the distortion–uninvited–restarts, tensing up the entire project again. 

The music video accompanying the single is technically gorgeous and on-brand with MARINA’s typical artistry. Yet, it doesn’t enhance the track in any meaningful way. She lip-syncs while wearing beautiful gowns and corsets, rolling around on carpets and dancing in voids. She’s attractive, sure, we already know this. But every time that piercing chorus hits, I wince. I struggle to appreciate the visuals for what they are, never in earnest as MARINA intends. 

I sensed something sinister loomed the instant MARINA stans flooded Reddit with photos of live caterpillars, handed out on the streets of Los Angeles to promote “Butterfly.” An on-the-nose guerilla strategy that simply can’t end well for most of those poor creatures. And need I not remind you–don’t mess with butterflies. 

With the fifteenth anniversary of MARINA’s fabulous debut, The Family Jewels, taking place mere days before the release of “Butterfly,” I can’t help but be sorrowful for what once was. Many were hoping for a return to the weirdness of the debut, the bubblegum flavor of 2012’s Electra Heart, or even the disco-infused sensibility of 2015’s Froot. Rather, we were served low energy, harsh autotune, and a beat that’s twenty-five years stale. “Butterfly” doesn’t have to define her sixth project, and I myself choose to remain hopeful. But I also cannot be delusional, and MARINA shouldn’t be either.