By Kamaiyah Lineberger
The first time I heard a song by The Marías, an indie pop band, I was in middle school. My best friend, Marisa, recommended that I listen to the song “Over the Moon.” I was always very jealous of the way she listened to music. She listens to an array of different genres, artists and albums. I’ve always been the kind of person to hear a song, love it and play it until I get tired of it. I feel a sense of comfort with the same 20 I’ve listened to all my life. However, when she recommended the song, I figured why not give it a listen.
I remember being so obsessed with how soft and soothing the lead singer’s voice was. I was bitter that I didn’t discover the song on my own, so since that day I hadn’t listened to The Marías. I guess you could say out of spite, but hey, I was 13. That was, at least, until my boyfriend played one of the band’s songs in the car a few months ago.
The first song that he played that really interested me was “Sienna” from band’s second studio album, Submarine, that came out on May 31, 2024. I recognized the song from videos I’ve seen on TikTok. The song is extremely visual with lyrics like, “And I smile when I think of all the times we had / On the beach in the winter, when the waves were mad.” The thing that really interested me about this was the backstory. My boyfriend told me that the two main people in the group, Maria Zardoya and Josh Conway, were dating and then had a bad breakup that almost led the group to break up as well. The song was a reflection of their relationship and the fact that if they were to have a daughter together her name would be Sienna. “Ooh, Sienna / Would’ve been cute / Ooh, Sienna / Would look just like you.” After I learned that, I was hooked.
The success and recognition that The Marías have garnered as of recently–35.3 million monthly Spotify listeners and their recent nomination for Best New Artist for the Grammys– is due to social media and the modern dating epidemic. Our generation has come to terms with the fact that finding a lasting and meaningful relationship is really hard. Cheating is being normalized, trust issues are breaking people up (listen to “Paranoia”), and no one wants to use labels anymore because they’re too afraid of commitment. Submarine tells all of those stories of modern dating. The album covers relatable themes having to do with relationships. The album is also very visual. As with most of the band’s projects, a lot of time is given to the overall “vibe,” which is one reason for their success.
The group started after Zardoya and Conway met in Los Angeles at Canter’s Deli while Zardoya was performing in their cocktail lounge called The Kibbitz Room and Conway was working sound. What started as romantic interest ended up being the creation of a band. They later welcomed Jesse Pearlman and Edward James.
In the band, Zardoya serves as lead vocalist, Conway as percussionist and producer, Pearlman as guitarist and James as keyboard and synthesizer.
Submarine has 14 songs and is a total of 45 minutes and 13 seconds. It has two songs in Spanish, “Ay No Puedo” and “Lejos de Ti”. The very first song, “Ride,” is a great introduction to the album. The theme is water, if you couldn’t tell by the album name, and “Ride” lets you know that the following songs are quite a journey.
I recommend listening to this album on Spotify because of the visuals. For the song “Hamptons,” Zardoya is underwater blowing bubble rings to the surface, while for “No One Noticed” she’s taking off headphones underwater and swimming. I think that the visuals, although they don’t necessarily coincide with the song’s content, made the listening experience very entertaining.
The best way to describe Zardoya’s voice is echoey and flowery. The song that most illustrates this is “Hamptons.” It sounds as if each syllable is being stretched, and she’s recording in an empty staircase. In this song, her singing is effortless but still clear.
On TikTok, the band has 16 songs with thousands of videos. The most popular sound of theirs is a 60- second snippet of “No One Noticed (Extended Spanish)” from Submarine with 627,000 uses.
“Sienna” is also a very popular song of theirs on TikTok, with 183k uses. The videos that fans are making to this song are edits of different TV couples, users showing off their own relationships and of course the tense performances by Zardoya and Conway. All of the videos made to their songs are sentimental. The song “Nobody New” has 96.3k uses on TikTok. Users are telling viewers their relationship problems with the sound, sharing relationships that are flourishing and their experience of listening to The Marías.
Each song from this album can be played in drastically different settings. “Echo” sounds like it can be played in a coffee shop because of its catchy hook and chill drums. “Run Your Mouth” sounds like it can be played while shopping at a retail store because of the use of snares and the guitar interlude which make you feel upbeat. The dancing rhythm from “Hamptons” makes it perfect for a chill club scene.
My favorite song from the album is “Lejos de Ti.” It put my AP Spanish knowledge and Spotify’s translate feature to work. Hearing Zardoya sing in Spanish is so relaxing. The language is already beautiful. Pair her singing with it and I was in a trance. I also appreciate that with enough listening, you’re able to sing along even if it’s not your native tongue because of how well-written it is.
The Marías makes music for people who like sad music, those going through breakups, hopeless romantics and pessimists. No song is entirely hopeful. All of them have some negative scenarios/feelings/doubts, which I think very accurately depicts Gen-Z dating. To be able to listen to a song that perfectly describes your current situation in life is unmatched. For me, some songs from this album made me realize that I’m not alone in how I feel or think in my relationship. The songs create a sort of shared experience. Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram only deepen that shared experience by exposing more people to The Marías’ music.