No one makes cinematic social commentary like Melanie Martinez.
The songwriter has built his career on a world of fantasy, writing stories with characters, surreal images and a sound that is clearly his own. Three years later Portalshe continues that tradition with his fourth effort, HADES.
Where previous projects explored childhood, innocence and change, HADES it delves into something much darker – power, corruption, gender, religion, capitalism and the systems that shape life today. It’s not about predicting a dystopian future, but examining the destructive patterns that already exist. The result is a fictional lens translated into the real fractures of society using a fictional lens.
That vision is clear from the start. “DISNEY PRINCESS” begins with an expansive orchestral melody before breaking into a sweet but poignant chorus. The song criticizes feminism, with Martinez crooning, “I can’t leave the show / I signed the dotted line/ And I’ve attacked every devil,” before the song melts into a terrifying, unsettling tone.
The intro to “GARBAGE” kicks off with a blast and the roar of a crowd wearing distorted instruments. It’s deliberately stressful – a heavy schedule of information and social noise.
“WHITE BOY WITH A SHOOT” takes a surprising turn, built around a relaxed rhythm and a dreamy bass line. The subdued presentation sharpens the verbal criticism, as Martinez calls out misogyny in dry, understated lines. His gentle delivery makes the message even more profound. “POSSESSION” fits that contrast, combining lighter rhythms with darker tones, including faint church bells. The religious imagery continues on “THE VATICAN,” one of the album’s catchiest tracks, where a haunting melody meets a synth rhythm.
Martinez relies heavily on myth to talk about religious hypocrisy, making the point, “Catholic, Christian, kissing Jesus, licking AR-15s.” The connection is deliberate and inconvenient.
The gritty “GRUDGES” revolves around a dark, twisted, reminiscent space Cry Babyreimagined through the lens of a horror game. It explores anger and revenge with a lo-fi, punchy production before softening briefly with a harp-infused mix. “WEIGHT BLESSINGS” follows a similarly poignant interpretation of the body, a theme that touches far beyond.
Attention to detail throughout the album’s 18 tracks. In “MONOPOLY MAN,” coins jingle in the background, reinforcing its themes of wealth and control. “CHATROOM” incorporates the muffled sounds of AOL Messenger alongside slow electric guitar lines, as Martinez reflects on online bullying.
“Put your pain out, you wanna stab ’em/ What a life,” he sings, before the song closes with AOL’s usual signature.
“BATSHIT INTELLIGENCE” combines a deceptively sweet song with a heavy subject matter. “High rent/ And taxes paid/ On a floating rock / Roads on fire,” Martinez shouts, mixing existential dread with economic anxiety. The song ends with a clip of a news reporter talking about the evacuation of homeless camps, transitioning to “GUTTER”. It’s one of the album’s most grounded and candid moments of public opinion.
The middle section of the album kicks back with a powerful pace. “AQUIDANT” takes things back in harmony and ends with tinnitus-like ringing. “MONOLITH” continues in a subdued tone with a piano-driven ballad that offers a rare moment of introspection.
That silence doesn’t last long. “SEOA” explodes into a chaotic mix of glitches and synths, with a faint cough woven into the background. The result is claustrophobic and disorienting, mirrors the themes of fear and contagion – real and social.
What Martinez achieves here is not only to present a broken world, but to refuse to look away from it. HADES it does not offer easy answers or clean conclusions. Instead, it presents uncomfortable truths covered in cinematic productions, various symbols and dark pop songs. It’s chaotic, dramatic, and sometimes overwhelming – but that’s exactly the point.
The album closes with “THE LAST TWO PEOPLE ON EARTH,” a melancholic, dystopian finale that feels like a siren call to the void. It measures ambition and a deep awareness of our place in the world. In the grand scheme of things, we are small. It’s emotional and fits the bill as the final piece of the puzzle.
HADES it is not made for easy listening. It requires care, explanation and patience. Like the underground world from which it originates, it is surprising, unsettling and revealing. Once you enter, you have to see the world in a slightly different way.
Follow the author Vera Maksymiuk at Twitter.com/veramaksymiuk.
About the Author
Vera Maksymiuk is an American photographer and writer. She has written for the Stanford Daily, The Red Wheelbarrow and most recently, the San Francisco chapter of Her Campus. He is also a published poet.
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