Marina Diamandis has done it again. Her new video for "I'm A Ruin" is an understated tour de force. (A trend we're seeing across the board, actually.)
Set in a desert, Diamandis moves around for the camera — jumping here and there, cowering at times. Had the video been put through a cooler filter (and featured some ravens), it would feel like the companion to Madonna's "Frozen." Instead, Diamandis flips the script and plays the character Madge is speaking to in her 1998 song — the one who's heart needs to be opened. Whether intentional or not, this video is the ying to the yang of "Frozen."
Bubbly but bittersweet, Marina and the Diamonds' "I'm A Ruin" isn't about a life being ruined, but the one who will ruin another. It's a theme that was exploited throughout her sophomore album, Electra Heart, and returns here again — only with more perspective, less, cynicism, and a thread of hope.
"I'm A Ruin" is featured on Marina and the Diamonds' third album FROOT, out April 6.