República Bolivariana de Venezuela

Universidad Arturo Michelena

Facultad de Humanidades, Letras y Artes
Escuela de Idiomas Modernos

By: Melanie Martinez

Sarah Suárez C.I 30.858.070

Sección: 4T
Profesor: Santiago Martínez

San Diego, 25 de octubre de 2023

 The art of starting again, is the concept behind Melanie Martinez’s album “Portals”, a

statement of rebirth, based on the cyclical nature of life and death signaling a journey through

struggle, growth and self-discovery, from the death of her character to the birth of her new and

current self. The name of the album suggests the significant change from one life to the next, and

how everything loops back to the start, with the first song, DEATH, dedicated to the dissolution

of a past self we hear the loop “Death is life, is death is life” symbolizing the nature of the living

beings, and how “the death” to rebirth as a new and improved person can be a way to overcome

personal struggles and criticism, making clear that is not the end of everything, but a way to open

to new experiences.

However, not everything in life is easy, in the next song VOID is about the second stage

where you’re lonely and judging yourself, questioning whether the decision to change and improve

has been the right one, constantly fearing what comes next, using the metaphor of soul separation,

getting lost and confused in an abyss of darkness and self-criticism, taking the lessons you have

learned in the past and evolving to inhabit a new body to be born again, this being a significant part

of the metaphorical concept behind the message of the album.

One of the most interesting things about the lyrics of her albums is the double meaning, as

they follow the story of her own character’s storyline while being applied to life in general, a clear

example of that is the song TUNNEL VISION, where it continues the storytelling of the soul

separation, moving through a tunnel to the next phase of existence, while also making a literal

reference about a person just focusing on sexualizing her image and thirsting over her.

In comparison to the previous songs, here the metaphors become even more intertwined,

having FAERIE SOIRÉE as a result, relating fairies spirit guides to the ideas of identity and

gender fluidity “Gather me, all of we, everyone. I've been the boys and the girls and everyone in
between”, accompanied by moving and light melodies that provides the sensation of a mystical

journey, similar to the feeling of curiosity we feel when exploring or discovering a new part of our

identity. Then, we move deeper into the spiritual and earthly meaning with LIGHT SHOWER,

comparing the love and sex she receive from her partner, to a soul cleansing experience, once again

bringing back the main spiritual theme.

At this point the album takes a different perspective of things representing the more

common daily life and social struggles, for example, SPIDER WEB describes the servile

behaviors on the internet of people deeply attached to social media comparing it to the insects

caught on a spider web, waiting for their inevitable demise “Up all night, bound to their addiction

to it, Lifeless eyes, they die in the pit of the spider web”. It delves deeper into the obsession of

people with drama and following creators desperate to see their downfall, as well as the inability

to separate from the internet once they have attention or the spotlight to them, criticizing how the

media’s chokehold affects our society and critical thinking.

Following this sequence of ideas, comparing unpleasant human beings to insects or in this

case to animals, being surrounded by LEECHES, another metaphor for the type of people who

drain and manipulate others for their own benefit, later questioning how much can these people

until there’s nothing left, therefore the artist implies “They find any way just to make you stay”

that sometimes it is a matter of luck if we are stuck with these type of people or if we manage to

escape from the toxic dynamic.

After treating themes of toxic interactions, and how society can take advantage of people,

the artist focuses on the importance of standing up for oneself, in BATTLE OF THE LARYNX

the chorus emphasizes the protection of our voice and opinions, to stand up tall and not let other to

belittle you, showing two different types of verbal conflict, one being the person who yells and
threatens the other to intimidate, and the other kind, where the other can calmly and assertively

express their point of view and prove a point.

Consequently, after getting over the fear of speaking up, with the sounds of cracking bones

we’re introduce to THE CONTORTIONIST, a strong and meaningful song about the struggle of

feeling trapped and worthless in a toxic and abusive relationship, forcing to be something else for

someone that controls and doesn’t value your true self. Twisting or dismissing their boundaries as

the physical and emotional pain, reaching a breaking point where the subject is done with the

dynamic and no longer accepts the abuse.

In many occasions Melanie has said that she loves to include “taboo” songs to her albums,

those topics everyone knows about but no one dares to speak of them, in this case MOON CYCLE

represents the vitality of blood in women’s reproductive life, in other words menstruation,

expressing how even though some women suffer from cramps and pain, that doesn’t make us

weaker “I could win a fight on my period, Matter fact, right now I could build a pyramid”. But

most of it interpretation focus on how her partner doesn’t mind the cycle and how he wants to be

intimate, pairing this with howling wolves on the background instrumental.

Now, getting closer to the ending, it comes to NYMPHOLOGY a song based on the

nymphs of Greek mythology, and how this image of a young woman its often presented as an object

of desire to men, using them to gain pleasure or profit just to discard them when there’s no use or

value left, criticizing the way that society view and accept femininity and how they often disrespect

this feminine attitudes and force the role of caretaker, mom or healer to the women on our society,

being wanted like a prize, objects of value that men often brag about having, while neglecting or

gaslighting them, those people that don’t even take a minute to understand who she is, and making

their suffering a spectacle.

 Taking the final turn in this journey through life and it’s struggles, the song EVIL represent

the total release of anger accumulated from past abuses, emotional repression and overstepped

boundaries, the final decision to cut someone out of your life and walking out a situation or

someone who doesn’t deserve her, knowing how she could be considered “evil” just for stopping

to be a people pleaser, her character letting go of those grudges, letting her soul free from bitterness

to the final step reborn.

That’s how we get to the end of this moving and profound journey, learning how life will

always have difficulties and obstacles, and with a soft guitar and soft vocals merging to an upbeat

chorus telling the story of the evolution and imminent change, her character, Crybaby’s soul is now

preparing and reflecting her learned lessons inside her mother’s WOMB, as the woman prepares

to give birth. If we listen to the standard version of the album, the end of “Womb” loops right back

to the beginning of “Death” remarking once again that “death is life”.

 Analysis

Portals is Melanie Martinez’s 3rd album, released on March 31, 2023. The singer said she

felt inspired by her experience reading books about past-life regression hypnotherapy, back in the

days where covid-19 was taking many lives, in return she wrote this album to give people hope

that there’s life after death.

Simultaneously, giving us, the listeners a change to dive once again into her artistic

expression and reflect for a moment once we get to really listen to her lyrics. However, for me,

since the album came out I’ve been fascinated with the background and the meanings of her lyrics

as they’re more introspective and reflective than the other social critiques that she has done before,

the same with themes such as personal growth, self-love, heartbreak and the life in the public eye,

using metaphors such as soul separation, dying and rebirth, representing the learning process with

a very fantastic imagery and it takes the listener through Melanie’s own journey, as this album

closes the trilogy of her character Crybaby, this deeply vulnerable and existential album can be a

healing experience for many, as the open interpretation of her lyrics makes them easy to relate with

our own background and daily struggles. Overall giving a more mature and experimental messages

creating self-awareness about the society problematics while not being so loud and obnoxious

about it.

To conclude, portals as an album can be a powerful tool to reflect about changing and

improving our attitudes towards life itself, inviting us to search for personal growth, learn and

evolve, to be happy with ourselves and the experiences that one day will be the only thing that

remains of our existence after we die, the memories of our lives.