If Peter Pan was remade in 2020 as a movie about him as a relatable nervous teenager trying to survive high school while navigating the treacherous landscape of first love, Roselina Albino’s song “Movie Star” would be the perfect soundtrack. This comes as no surprise as the NYC/LA-based writer and performer describes her indie-pop single as a tribute to her “love for Peter Pan and finding your inner child”.
The subtle references to James Newton Howard’s fantastical score in Roselina’s dream pop soundscape are hard to miss. What’s equally striking is Roselina’s voice – there is both a youthfulness and deep maturity evident in her tone. This notion of musical duality is a theme that seems to be recurrent in her music, as shown in the lyrics and the track’s overall mood. The lyrics have a sense of time-worn introspection while also feeling like they could be the naïve utterings of a pair of lovesick teenagers who are sprawled together on a bedroom floor lying beneath a canopy of fairy lights on a Friday evening.
“But we never did, we never did see/ All the kings and queens, all the kings and queens we’d be,” Roselina croons with her Lana Del Ray-esque rich voice. This track makes us miss the toy crowns we used to play with while also wondering if we ever found our crowns in this adult life (too deep? She started it…).
Overall, “Movie Star” made for a great listening experience for your Tonemamas who found themselves both happy for the future while also nostalgic for the innocence of adolescence (we’re just emotional this week…we wish we could all get along like we used to in middle school… we wish we could bake a cake filled with rainbows and smiles and everyone would eat and be happy…#thatwasameangirlsreference).
Best listened to: Anywhere with fairy lights. Doesn’t matter if it’s in your bedroom, in a bar, in the subway (might be weird to take fairy lights with you there, though) – just have fairy lights while listening.
Listen for this moment: 2:32 when the bridge surprises us with unexpected harmony changes driving the track deeper into it’s beautiful world of melancholy and magic.