The Marías resurface on their sophomore record Submarine from the depths of a potentially sundering heartbreak. After hosting a surprise secret show in Los Angeles this past weekend the indie-pop darlings are taking their new record on a U.S. tour that includes a stop at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on August 22nd.

A Spellbinding and Achingly Honest Dive into a Shipwrecked Relationship

Both Superclean, Vol. 1-2, and CINEMA afforded listeners an intimate peek into the ardent romance of The Marías heart, soul, and founding members María Zardoya and Josh Conway. Their follow-up confronts the dissolution of that relationship with valiant but eviscerating honesty, chronicling the painful longing that follows a split between two people despite their enduring love for one another. Before you’re even graced with the first sublime notes of Submarine, the blue melancholia of its cover art — a deep contrast to the radiant hues that decorated their debut — forewarns you of this dramatic shift.

Tense moments of crisis ebb just below the record’s moody and wistful soundscapes. Unanswered phone calls, desperate gestures, haunting mementos like a shared t-shirt, The Marías invite you into a gallery of heartache’s most gutting moments. That grief reaches a swooning fever pitch on “Lejos de Ti” and “Ay No Puedo,” Zaradoya’s velvety voice spilling out in Spanish, sinking you deeper into her alluring anguish. While the collection’s most devastating reminder their love is unsalvagable is cooed into your ear as a simple but gut-wrenching realization: “Call me back, but I don’t see myself in your cell phone / In your cell phone.”

Reciprocal Shortcomings and the Riptide that Keeps Lovers Drifting Back

Part of what makes Submarine so bittersweet is the discovery that devotion and tenderness still churn beneath the tumultuous waves of romantic separation. But the album also finds The Marías reckoning with all the personal hangups and miscommunications that necessitate a breakup. As honest conversations turn into accusatory confrontations, faithful affection is met with frustrating paranoia, the pair hold up a mirror to the mutual foibles that lead to a breakup.

Carried by a tide of lovelorn despair there are also instances in which the two yearning and broken lovers find themselves carried back to one another. Even as Zaradoya gives voice to the need to walk away, she also finds herself daydreaming over the possibility of an earnest reconciliation. “I can’t say goodbye / Even when I try,” she sings on “If Only,” her lucent words aglow with impossible sorrow. “Why’d I even leave? / You tell me.” Her question is left wafting in the air like the fading aroma of an ex-lover.

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Taps into a Wellspring of Lovesick Alt-Pop

The synth-buzzing, Britney Spears-esque “Ride” opens the album. Arriving as your first indicator that The Marías sound has billowed to accommodate a ravishing array of alt-pop. Heady electro-bass still punctuates Zaradoya’s luminous vocals, playing a vital part in the band’s ability to conjure intoxicating atmospheres. Their songs remain streaked with sleek, refulgent riffs and cascades of roiling percussion that evoke the frayed tension and crackling passion that eddies below the surface.

Yet for every uptempo and spiraling melody is a seductively languid ballad that simmers with jazz-lounge instrumentals and elegantly distraught rhythms. Sad horns warbling alongside irresistibly suave grooves echoing a lonely agony. As Submarine engulfs you in its crushing and oceanic mood, The Marías prove the silky intimacies that texture their music are just as potent when soaked in their lovesickness.

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See The Marías at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Thursday, August 22nd.

Words: Steven Ward

Visit The Marías on their website and Instagram to stay updated on new releases and tour announcements.