The Submarines "Declare a New State!" (Nettwerk)
By Ken Marcou
Thursday. Jun 22, 1:06 AM
Intimate indie / folk electronica love story.

Declare a New State! has a saturating sorrowful tone. However, it is aimed at finding hope, understanding, and ultimately happiness. You could say that the storytellers deal with their pain in a constructive way, which in the end yields them favorable results. Considering band members Blake Hazard and John Dragonetti have written a record together about their relationship and struggles like their breakup, ultimately culminating in none other than their marriage, this may be downtrodden music that we should take notes on.

On "Brighter Discontent," Hazard sings, "I think I might know what I really want / but is a brighter discontent the best that I can hope to find?" It's the classic realization that all the cool stuff in the world doesn't matter if you're alone. The melody in the chorus really shows her realization of this. It's such an uplifting and nostalgia-filled hook to hear if you yourself have already hit that realization, and agonizing – like much of the mood on the record – if you haven't. It's an important part of a love story.

In actuality, the whole record is a love story. It definitely has the sullen tone I have come to expect from a Nettwerk release. However, not all is well: the vocals too often have a sleepy, subtly raspy, whispery-cutesy thing happening, which never really sits well with me. The programming is interesting, but doesn't open up enough at times to help move the songs dynamically. This is too bad, because there's a range of emotions in these songs, and it seems that the flatline dynamic element undermines the power of these emotions. But Hazard does let her voice loose. The love story and sounds used to show their feelings are believable, and makes it easy to relate to their stories. Because the record is slow and not very dynamic, it really is a “mood” listen. I found that it wasn't that satisfying while listening in the midst of the day, but is fully appreciated and understood while quietly listening and just letting yourself think, remember, and feel a little... something that is really hard to find the time to do in this hectic modern world of ours, but that we should do more of. The record works on this personal level and in this intimate space, which in the end makes it a success.
www.thesubmarines.com
www.nettwerk.com

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Ken Marcou

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