submarine LP

You can hear a breakup get turned into color on Submarine: María Zardoya and Josh Conway split as a couple right as the Marías were making their second record, and instead of burying it they built the whole thing around the blue tinted mood of the film Three Colours: Blue. It's a dangerous way to make a pop album, writing your own ex into the sound design, but it worked, following 2021's Cinema into the Billboard 200 top 20, Platinum certification in the US, and an Album of the Week nod from Stereogum.