Review Summary: A religious experience — haunting, yet beautiful.
YENNA, from the Greek word γεννα, which translates to birth (noun): 1) the act of bringing forth offspring, 2) a beginning or start; a point of origin
Despite being Greek, I don't listen to much Greek music. And even when I do, I choose artists who are
decades into their careers and have a richer and much more impactful catalogue than newer artists. Because if I am being honest with you, there aren't many new Greek artists to be excited about. The majority of what one can find is either washed-out modern laïkó or homogenous trap, complete with average — at best — singing and even more average lyrics — again,
at best. The Greek music scene is at an all-time low.
Enter Marina Satti, who received acclaim for her rendition of the traditional song ‘Koupes’ / ‘Cups’ and international attention with her 2017 single 'Mantissa' / 'Fortune Teller', a piece of Greek pop that mixed contemporary sounds and traded modern music's more overused elements with a tasteful bagpipe, handclaps and a chorus that feels sun-soaked — its hopefulness, both musically and lyrically ("Against all winds and the unstable sky / I'll be flying") lends the song a memorability that isn't forced, hence why it's a song so fondly looked upon. There's no other way of saying it, it was (and still is) genuinely good; and made me immensely excited to see where she was heading to next.
Marina could have taken advantage of the popularity brought by her singles, but she didn’t. She retreated, choosing to focus on a complete artistic vision to present to the world. Fast forward to June 2021 and we were introduced to that artistic vision with ‘PALI’ / ‘AGAIN’, a straight-forward pop song with handclaps, rhythms and vocals very similar to the ones found on the singles from
El Mal Querer (see ‘Malamente’ and ‘Di Mi Nombre’). It wasn’t a poor effort, but it got me worried about her direction, as I feared that she was wearing her influences on her sleeve and sacrificing her unique blend of sounds in favor of something more commercial and instantly agreeable. However, after listening to
YENNA many times, my doubts and worries were easily put to rest; this whole album finds Marina as an artist with a sound of her own that challenges Greek and maybe even global music.
The best way to describe the listening experience is religious —
YENNA evokes a lot of awe out of me. There are moments where the project is drop dead
gorgeous, obligating you to hold it in veneration. ‘PROSEFHI’ / ‘PRAYER’ switches the wild eletronics of the first tracks for a short, slow-moving number that puts Marina’s impressive vocal work in the forefront, while a clock is ticking in the background. It’s pretty bare, but it never feels empty. The indie-pop tune ‘PONOS KRIFOS’ / ‘SECRET PAIN’ later on is similarly bare with faint percussion, but it’s Marina’s vocals — both main and background — that fill up that space and the results can be downright beautiful, like in the song’s chorus.
At the same time, it can be very menacing, instilling a sense of fear into the listener. ‘YIATI POULI M' (DEN KELAIDIS)’ / ‘WHY MY BIRD (DON’T YOU SING)’ is a cover of a traditional song from the Greek region of Thrace, a lament inspired by the fall of Constantinople using a bird whose wings have been cut off and cannot sing anymore as a metaphor for one’s inability to move forward in life having disconnected from their routes. Her cover certainly feels like a lament, as a whirlwind of vocals is the sole focus of the track, sounding chilling, both lovely and ominous too, before a door is slammed right at the end of the track, transitioning into the next. ‘KRITIKO’ / ‘CRETAN’ is a cluster*** of distorted sounds, crazy electronics and manipulated, glitchy vocals that best reminds me of FKA twigs’ 'home with you'. It’s all over the place and on the edge of sounding overstuffed, but it’s successful at the claustrophobia and ominosity it aims at — “And everyone will cry about me” goes the chorus, as she talks about killing herself once the happiness in the relationship with her loved one vanishes. ‘SPIRTO KE VENZINI’ / ‘MATCH AND GASOLINE’ finds Marina urging her lover to throw a match on her body so that she catches on fire (a lyric taken from a popular Greek song) in a cold, falsely sweet delivery while violent kicks and samples of a lighter fill the background.
Her desire to differentiate herself musically has greatly paid off and these are risks rarely seen in recent Greek music. ‘ADII DROMI’ / ‘EMPTY STREETS’ starts off as a moody electro-pop tune before claps and a clarinet (or a vocal mimcking the sound of one) are introduced and turning the song into something that most Greeks have heard in a traditional Greek festival (known as
panigyri). Despite the album being called ‘birth’, it ends with ‘MIROLOI’ / ‘LAMENT’, a Greek funeral song with choral vocals, before zanny percussion and clarinet turn this into a different experience. It’s abrupt and along with the penultimate track literally being a lullaby, it makes the momentum that
YENNA has picked up across its previous 9 songs come to a halt, but it’s a very interesting thematic and sonic conclusion that I fully embrace.
The main problem I face with
YENNA is that Marina has yet to find a lyrical identity. In spite of her willingness to push the sonic boundaries in recent Greek music, she has put together a narrative about love and passion, themes that have been explored in Greek folk music for years — and her approach to those themes is not anything new either. Considering Marina Satti grew up in a culturally diverse environment (her mother is Cretan and her father Sudanese), a debut album exploring identity and family would have been an incredibly engaging concept and one that I thought the album hinted at with the opener. As it stands though, the themes of lust are better translated through her sound, rather than the lyrical execution.
YENNA is not perfect and Marina has a lot of time to perfect her craft. But if it’s proof of anything, it’s proof that she has an artistic vision and sound that could rival her international pop peers. She’s not a masterful lyricist yet and the ending feels sudden — but with
YENNA, I see an artist, making her first steps into the world and being eager to explore it on her own terms.
