“The Mariana” by Everything Everything
For starters, the title of this song (“The Mariana”) is actually a reference to the Mariana Trench. The Mariana Trench is a part of the Pacific Ocean east of Southeast Asia that is the deepest known point on the Earth.
And some of the metaphors featured in this piece do revolve around that reality. However, this isn’t a track about geology or anything like that. Rather, “the Mariana” is given a shoutout as a symbol of the depths of depression certain people endure and most specifically, as explained by Jonathan Higgins, British men.
For whatever reasons that we cannot delve into at the moment, in recent times White men have gone from being considered the most-advantaged demographic in Western society to, in places like the United Kingdom for instance, arguably the most-troubled ones. Or in any event, male suicide in general has been a notable problem in that country. And sadly, this is a trend that appears to be on the rise.
Different parties will likely give different explanations as to why this is so, but again, delving into the phenomenon is not the purpose of this song. Rather, it’s as if Everything Everything is simply acknowledging that the depression which causes their countrymen to behave in the most-extreme self-destructive manner is indeed real.
All in All
This is a sympathetic piece which does not offer any solutions. But the lyrics do conclude along the lines of seemingly encouraging those who are challenged as noted above to man-up, in a manner of speaking.
In other words, the outro seems to be suggesting, in a roundabout way, that there really is no choice but to face the challenges of life as suicide, at least from the perspective of vocalist, is not a viable option.
“My God
How did I get here without my God?
Someone always has to be the man
(Mariana, are you there?)”
Everything Everything
Everything Everything is a group that specializes in a genre known as art rock. This is an act that has been around since the late aughts. Between 2010 and 2022, they dropped six LPs, with all but the first scoring within the top 10 of the UK Albums Charts.
During that time, they also came out with a handful of EPs, including “A Deeper Sea”. The aforementioned EP was issued through Sony RCA on 27 February 2018. And “The Mariana” is the opening song from that four-track project.
Credits for “The Mariana”
The membership of Everything Everything has remained pretty consistent throughout the years. The four members of the band since at least 2009 are credited with writing this song. These members are:
- frontman Jonathan Higgs
- guitarist Alex Robertshaw
- bassist Jeremy Pritchard
- drummer Michael Spearman
The producer of “The Mariana” is the notably-successful James Ford.
FYI:
The music video to “The Mariana” was filmed in the band’s hometown of Manchester, England.
