The Marías dropped their first full-length album, ‘Cinema,’ and it depicted the themes of love, desire and heartbreak. The Los Angeles based band have delivered a mix of genres such as Latin pop, psychedelic rock and jazz throughout their musical career. The dreamy pop lead vocals of María Zardoya, frontwoman of The Marías, are absolutely exceptional throughout the entire album.
‘Cinema’ opened a pathway towards vulnerability and a rollercoaster of emotions especially in “All I Really Want Is You.” The lyrics “All I really want is you/What would you do?/Sleeping outside the moon/Trippin’ with you” expresses the emotional intimacy with clever rhyming throughout Zardoya’s soothing voice and the subtle electric guitar riffs made this a creatively complex listen. Not to mention how beautiful the background vocals correlated so well with Zardoya’s lead vocals.
The Marías are also bilingual in their music with classics such as “Basta Ya” and “Cariño” that are in the Superclean Vol. I and Vol. II EPs. In this case, the ‘Cinema’ album truly went into depth both instrumentally and lyrically where “Little By Little,” for example, started off in English, then beautifully transitioned into Spanish storytelling. “Quiero amanecer entre tu piel de miel/Luego acariciarte hasta quitar tu sed/Tal y como estás me enredo en tu sed,” in other words, Zardoya metaphorically expressed romance in her lyrics such as wanting to wake up in between her partner’s honey skin and being caressed in his thirst. Listeners can get a sense of taking things slow when hearing “Little By Little,” or one step at a time.
“To Say Hello” represents the different stages of loneliness and admitting how it can be difficult letting go of someone you once loved. “I called to say hello/Take the summertime to grow/I’ll see you when it’s cold/When darkness starts to fold,” these lyrics can be interpreted as wanting to check in on your past lover, but the right thing for both individuals is to take time apart to grow as stronger individuals. When the time is right, it’s possible to cross paths again to make the relationship work.
From start to finish, The Marías beautifully captured the imperfections of love while also demonstrating the positive outcome emotional intimacy can have. The percussion, electric guitar riffs, passionate vocals and overall musical creativity made ‘Cinema’ an album with zero track skips.
