A vivid and bittersweet indie pop ballad, Marlana’s “Good Girl” is a haunting slice of real life: One without the sugarcoating.
Stream: “Good Girl” – Marlana
Never stop following your dreams, they tell you. “Believe in yourself, and anything can happen.” Motivational posters and uplifting mantras are all “pretty words to say,” but they don’t can’t pay the bills when the rent comes due. The school of hard knocks leaves a lasting mark, as Marlana vividly depicts on her latest single – and it’s not always a pretty one. A vivid and bittersweet indie pop ballad, Marlana’s “Good Girl” is a haunting slice of real life: One without the sugarcoating.
My accounts at double digits again
I’m stealing toilet paper from the public bathroom
I haven’t been that thief in years
I went from giving advice to cleaning houses for a decent price
Who I am now is someone else
I wanted more this wasn’t me
I was a good kid I had plans and I had dreams
It’s not enough just to believe
that you’re good cause I was good
and look what happened to me
Now the baby’s gotta feed herself
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering Marlana’s “Good Girl,” independently out March 23, 2021. Marlana Sheetz’s first release of the new year arrives alongside her live concert ticketed film ‘Live At The Lodge Room‘, a 30 minute concert film recorded earlier this year at The Lodge Room in Highland Park, Los Angeles. The film – which goes behind the scenes into Marlana’s world – brings audience members up close and personal with Sheetz, a longtime member of indie pop band Milo Greene who debuted her solo project in late 2019.
“Under the moniker Marlana, [Sheetz] is quickly emerging as a reckoning force all on her own,” Atwood Magazine wrote in a special feature on Marlana’s debut EP At Least I Tried last summer. “A seven-track genre-defiant expression of independence and dependence, empowerment and hopelessness, confidence and self-doubt, heartache and self-love, At Least I Tried is as intimate as they come. Marlana’s debut is a majestic and visceral, up-close and personal outpouring from her heart to our ears: A reckoning whose soul-soaked songs of connection and searching for purpose, love and wandering reveal as much through their lyrics, as they do through their music.”
Gone are the days of youthful hope and blind optimism once you hit your 30s. Dreams are crushed and life happens.
The artist’s first song release since last year’s EP, “Good Girl” takes on a decidedly darker and bleaker tone. The song presents to listeners a true reckoning with the realities of life, especially as an artist trying to get your project off the ground. We often talk about “doing whatever it takes” – but what does that really mean? What are we willing to give up in our pursuits, and which pursuits are we willing to give up for our health and happiness?
Marlana pours herself into a moody, heavy soundscape – one in which she is free to express her true self, scars, wishes, regrets, and all. Her second verse paints a particularly evocative picture that most indie music lovers won’t soon forget:
Give me a minor hit and I’ll be fine with it
Then at least I’ll know I did it on my own
Forget the money and the confidence
I was never good at faking it
And I can’t lose what I never had
I’m tired of feeling half like a genius
half like a fraud who just pretends
But in my defense I may not be good at this
And there is no one with the heart to tell me
“Gone are the days of youthful hope and blind optimism once you hit your 30s. Dreams are crushed and life happens,” Marlana tells Atwood Magazine. “There is no law that says just because you work hard and have talent means you achieve success. It turns out the future can sometimes be as predictable as that game of M.A.S.H. I don’t live in a mansion and I didn’t marry Justin Timberlake. Fine, I can handle that. But maybe if I had known that half my family would die and I’d end up cleaning other people’s piss off of toilets to pay rent in my 30’s… I would have studied less and gone to the party instead.”
Marlana’s poignant chorus brings to the fore a wave of inner pain and crushed spirits – it’s the deeply bittersweet crux of the whole song.
I wanted more this wasn’t me
I was a good kid I had plans and I had dreams
It’s not enough just to believe that you’re good
cause I was good and look what happened to me
Now the baby’s gotta feed herself
This isn’t a warning; it’s not a series of outright laments, wishes, dreams, or desires. It’s not a cautionary tale, either. Rather, “Good Girl” is a moment of truth. It’s Marlana – an artist who already seemed to have stripped everything down on her debut – getting as real as possible with herself and her audience. It’s not the kind of story that is easily told, nor is it one that is often told – but in sharing “Good Girl,” Marlana is giving a voice to all those artists and dreamers out there who have sacrificed years of their lives working toward ideals that never seemed to materialize. Considering the global music industry celebrates and pays the few over the many, Marlana is unfortunately far from alone in her situation; thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of artists can share similar stories of struggle, sacrifice, heartbreak, pain, and disillusionment.
Hopefully in time, we might hear more of those stories; but for now, we have the special intimate upheaval that is “Good Girl.” Stream Marlana’s latest single exclusively on Atwood Magazine, and stay tuned for more from this singular artistry in the months and years to come. Knowing what it took to get to where she is today, we gratefully hope to hear more music from Marlana soon.
Purchase tickets for Marlana’s concert film here. It’s a great way to support independent artistry!
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Stream: “Good Girl” – Marlana
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