The Prologue - Alana Mars is a Love Letter to the Past, Present, and Future
Alana Mars is one of Denver’s premier alt-pop artists, and with the release of her new album The Prologue, it’s not hard to see why. Alana puts herself out there in the open for the world to see and hear on this record and expresses a side of herself that might be uncomfortable for some artists to share. Not only are these songs deeply personal and emotional, but they’re captivating and inspiring at the same time.
Her album opens with the track “Hold My Tongue”, which was one of the previously released standalone singles. This song perfectly sets the tone for the rest of the album and the instrumentals and synth (courtesy of Ben Pisano from Corsicana, who played almost all of the instrumentals on the album) found throughout this song reminds me of something I’d hear from The 1975. This song is followed up by “Don’t Ask”, with its cinematic drum and vocal intro, which is followed by a powerful chorus that really demonstrates Alana’s impressive vocal abilities. Her vocals on this song gives me hints of Hayley Williams and I think that’s just a testament to the talent of her vocal performance. With her next two songs on the album: “17” and “Living Room”, Alana gets deeply personal talking about themes such as coming of age as a teenager, growing up too fast, and dealing with feelings of depression and melancholy.
“Notes App” is a great follow-up to the previous two songs with a relaxed acoustic vibe for the first half of the song before breaking into a powerful final half of the song that catches the listener off guard. This song is about being wronged in a relationship, and you can feel the pain in Alana’s voice on this song and are able to truly empathize with her situation. The feelings of pain, anger, and loneliness are all brought to a head with Alana’s surprising scream at around the 3:55 mark in the song to just further convey her emotions in this song before its triumphant end. “Two Toned” is also a rollercoaster of emotions as it takes you on the journey of perhaps someone like Alana herself through the trials and tribulations as a growing person. This song is a perfect closer to the album and summarizes a lot of the themes of The Prologue including maybe the most important one: what it means to be human.
Overall The Prologue brings a sense of belonging to listeners with its catchy, easily-accessible sound and also its highly personable, relatable lyrics. This album shows a vulnerability with Alana that is hard to come by from many artists and it takes a lot of courage to put oneself out there for the world to see and listen to in such a way. Additionally, as previously mentioned, the instrumentals on the album were recorded by Ben Pisano of Corsicana - who also happened to produce, mix, and master the entire thing from start to finish.
Don’t miss Alana’s album release show on May 4th at Lost Lake in Denver! The lineup also features the talents of Virgil Vigil, Tireshoe, and Sk8rade. Tickets for this event can be found at the link below:
