In late August, Maria Zardoya began posting a series of quiet voice notes to fans on Spotify, gently guiding them to Not for radioa project she formed outside of her revolutionary group. Maria. She wanted to welcome people into the world she had built—an “alternate reality,” as she describes it, where she could allow intimate, deeply felt ideas about love, loss, and letting go to really unfold.
What she created Melta lush, labyrinthine landscape rooted in the lessons and healing of the natural world. But to understand the album's weight, it helps to know a little about Marias's own lore and discography: The band's latest album has a stunning, 2024 blue hue. SubmarineZardoya and her longtime partner and drummer Josh Conway split, which meant that some of the music became a space for dealing with heartbreak and goodbyes. After processing those emotions and even going to therapy as a group, they still had their most successful year in 2025, recording the hit single “No One Noteded,” performing at Coachella, and collaborating with Selena Gomez and Benny Blanco.
Although the group is still going strong, it is clear that Zardoya has more opportunities for self-exploration and independence to discover. How Not for radioshe steps out on her own, feeling her way through a distinct sound and landing in her creative individuality. There is courage in this process; Zardoya explained that she wanted to feel “uncomfortable” while doing MeltSo in the dead of winter, she moved to upstate New York, making it a point to take chilling walks through the icy forest every day and really focus on her feelings. She brought along artist-producer Sam Evian and instrumental producer Luca Bucciarati, who collaborated on every song.
This natural setting permeates the music. The listener hears trickling rivers on “Slip” and dripping synths on “Puddles,” Zrodya constantly evokes crunching leaves, sliding seas and frozen lakes in confessional lyrics. It all paints a portrait of Lynchian territory, dark, romantic and always exciting, with songs that aren't afraid to experiment and evoke emotion as they recall everyone from Radiohead to William Basinski and Julee Cruise. The trio let their imaginations run wild, developing ideas for structure and frolicking with unexpected arrangements, often in the middle of a song.
This playfulness comes through particularly well on “Swan,” which is filled with arpeggiated synths and scrambling keyboards. The song becomes a wistful ballad about searching for the person you are destined to end up with, like swans in the wild, showing Zardoya finding certain connections to the topography around her and the feelings that live deep inside her. In one voice note she posted on Spotify, she explains this connection directly: “Love in nature is not great, but it is simple. It is woven into migrations along rivers and forests, into mushrooms growing from moss, cracks and frozen lakes.”
There is longing and yearning in this process as Zardoya reveals himself as a man who loves as much as these songs sound. “When I'm gone, I'll keep you so far, so far away. And I'll keep you close to me,” she sings to the ghostly strains of “Magnet.” But this Zardoya is as honest and unvarnished as the nature around her, and just as there is a beautiful fragility in the outside world, it is her vulnerability that makes her vulnerable. Melt feel so powerful.
