I listen to so much music that my life has developed a soundtrack of its own: one composed by a strange mixture of genres and artists that span across my every experience and emotion. One album that has been especially emblematic of the power of music in my life is Three Dimensions Deep by pop-R&B artist Amber Mark.
I don’t remember the first time I listened to it as I tend not to remember the “firsts” of anything that eventually becomes a routine. I’m sure I liked its smooth and transcendental sounds upon first listen, but this album, like a lot of art, would take time to become what it has to me. Its lyrics would acquire more and more personal meaning over years of repeated listens.
Mark’s debut album is immersed in celestial imagery from the album cover art to songs like “Cosmic” and “Event Horizon.” These constant mentions of space, with several references to the night sky and its faraway stars, are apt for an album that (in my opinion) is fundamentally about feelings of alienation.
I strongly resonate with the opening track, “One.” It voices a search for approval from others: trying to balance being “what they dream” while holding on to who we are. This feeling of uncertainty and disconnect is pursued throughout the album. Mark’s initial self-doubt combined with her desire to live up to expectations (“I don’t know if I’ll ever succeed, I just want you proud of me up above”) is left for the listener to grapple with.Â
Mark’s journey expands to a search for purpose, meaning, fulfillment, and healing. In songs like “What It Is” and “On & On,” Mark tries to name the unnameable. She calls out, “Is it in the stars?” and “Tell me what it is.” She describes looking into the night sky for “a reason why,” waiting for a “sunny day,” and to be “given a sign.” Even in the midst of her lost state of mind, Mark asserts her ability to triumph over this uncertainty in “Turnin’ Pages,” where she aims to “push until I move on, like turnin’ pages.” In “Foreign Things,” Mark takes control over her life and the way she lives it, saying that nothing will “put out my fire” and “maybe I’ll pack a bag and not go back.”
This album is also entangled in deep feelings of love for the self, others, and for life within the universe. Mark constantly references the act of dreaming and uses the stars, along with the dreamy instrumentals that accompany her equally angelic vocals, to represent those aspirations. The songs “Cosmic” and “Darkside” show a fulfillment of these dreams of finding love and understanding. Mark describes “otherworldly feelings” and a love that’s “so very cosmic.” After the futility of her prior attempts to get answers from the sky, she’s “never seen a night sky look better” and “the dark side gets a little brighter.”
The closing song, “Event Horizon,” provides a beautiful conclusion to Mark’s journey of reconciliation with the world. With few lyrics interspersed throughout a heavenly ambience, listeners can appreciate the astronomical vastness of Mark’s floaty ascension. She asks, “Will it be alright without light?” and “Will you be shining at the event horizon?” This boundary of the event horizon represents the questions that persist and the uncertainties that she continues to navigate with some lingering hope in the face of it all.
This album embodies a search for so much of what I’ve been seeking in my own life: purpose, dreams, and answers. It’s music like this that reminds me of the immense (and maybe, in alignment with Mark’s theme, universal) life experience we all share with each other. Art like this shows the power of music to softly reassure and instill hope against the rough edges of reality. Even in the most difficult and hopeless of times, art can inspire you and serve as a much-needed reminder that we make our own meaning.