Aryan Ashtiani better knows as Mareux returns this summer with Nonstop Romance, an album that leans into chaos as much as it does emotion. The LA-based artist, known for his viral cover of The Cure’s The Perfect Girl, doesn’t clean things up on his second full-length. Instead, he leans into the rawness — scruffy synths, rough edges, and all the messy feelings that come with being completely obsessed with love. The first taste of the record, Laugh Now Cry Later, sets a tone that’s more bitter than sweet, pulling from the emotional fallout of both his past and his friends’. It’s not subtle, and it’s not trying to be.
The songs on Nonstop Romance come wrapped in shiny, club-friendly packaging, but there’s a darker energy humming underneath — like someone dancing through heartbreak with some drinks in their head. Mareux has said he wanted music that still feels alive in a room full of people, and that’s the thread that runs through this project. The whole album was made in his Lincoln Heights bedroom, with old films playing silently in the background — everything from Tarkovsky to early 2000s hip hop videos. That strange mix of references somehow works, giving the album its hazy, late-night mood.
With Laugh Now Cry Later out now, Mareux sets the emotional tone for what’s to come. It’s the saddest track on the album and maybe the most direct, channelling heartbreak with a steady pulse and a heavy sense of resignation. Started in 2018 and revived after watching friends go through their own messy endings, the track captures that familiar push-pull of trying to move on while still haunted by what went wrong. As an introduction to Nonstop Romance, it’s raw and clear: this isn’t a love story with clean edges, but one that’s bruised, noisy, and real.