You’re going away but I’m not giving up

I Guess I’m Floating, pretty much the best blog ever, has a few songs by The Submarines today. I read the comparison to The Stars, quickly downloaded the available songs, and instantly discovered a new obsession. I read the entry about five hours ago and have since then bought the album on iTunes and listened to it the whole way through twice. Isn’t the 21st century grand?

Let’s start with the story, since it’s almost absurdly sweet. If Hollywood ever makes a romantic comedy about an indie band, it will clearly be “based on the true story of Blake Hazard and John Dragonetti, The Submarines.” If it were a movie it might be too sugary, but since it’s real life, it’s just beautiful.

They each started as solo artists in Boston, met through mutual friends, he produced her album, they fell in love, and went on tour together. Perfect, right? Not quite. They moved to Los Angeles (where bad things do tend to happen, in my experience) and broke up. But it wasn’t over – they both returned to working on solo projects and quickly discovered that every song they were working on was about the other. From their myspace page:
“We realized we’d been writing all these songs about having broken up, about each other,” says Hazard. “It made so much sense as an album. It made sense sonically, it made sense thematically. So then we just wrote a few more songs together.” … “It’s almost like the break-up failed,” says Dragonetti. “When we were kind of falling back together it was just so obvious… we were like, oh, ok, if we’re doing this, we’re doing it for keeps.”

Their new album, Declare a New State, was the result. It’s a beautiful album about regret, longing, shared happiness, tough times, and new beginnings. It’s a composite of songs each produced on their own, brought back into the context of the other, and some new songs (“Peace and Hate” is the primary example) written by the two of them together, looking back on their breakup and reunion.

That the songs were written in these different contexts gives the album a wonderful feel. You can sense the joyfulness throughout, but it is informed by the deep loneliness of separation. Maybe it shouldn’t matter that the story behind the songs is so real, but it does. Knowing that it’s not just storytelling, but real grief, gives the happy ending so much more resonance. Not that a nice story would rescue a bad album, but it provides so much more texture to an already very good album.

There is a lot of pain here (“does every day feel like a brand new chance to fall apart?”), but also a great deal of hope (one of the songs is even named “Hope”). Above all, there is a sense of wonder. Wonder at the pain of love, that you can miss someone so much that it physically hurts, but also wonder that there is always hope for a second chance.

The reference to The Stars is spot on, as Hazard’s voice often sounds virtually identical to Amy Millan’s. Which, for anyone who knows how much I love her, is just about the best compliment I can pay. You could also pick any one of the other current female indie darlings (Jenny Lewis, Caithlin de Marrais, or, frankly, Lisa Loeb) and you wouldn’t be too far off. The point being: she really has an amazing voice. Plaintive, but strong. It soars, it whispers. You want more than anything to comfort her when she’s sad and share the joy when she’s happy.

As for Dragonetti, the first band that jumps to mind is Apples in Stereo. There is a strong 60s folky-but-also-really-into-the-Beach-Boys vibe here. The musical arrangements are not quite as complex as Pet Sounds or anything, but there’s some nice layering effects, and his songs manage to feel warm without sounding overproduced.

You can hear the first three tracks on the album at I Guess I’m Floating, and here’s one more to whet your appetite: Darkest Things, the final song, which emphasizes the hope for a new beginning (I’d have waited a lifetime for a sign, only to fall apart when love arrives, but we’re coming home…). But really you owe it to yourself (and them) to just buy the whole thing.

A couple days ago, I declared the new Band of Horses my favorite album of the first quarter of 2006, but Declare a New State has far surpassed it. Seriously, go buy it right now.

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