The Submarines

He and She make music together. He and She become a couple. He and She tour and move to L.A. He and She part ways. He and She make their own songs about being together and being apart. He and She find they are writing about the same things. He and She go deeper in The Submarines. Breaking up is hard to do.

Does the best art come from people in pain? Do we hate it when our heroes are happy? Do you need to suffer to be a great artist? Maybe it's like a deal with the devil. You'll be unlucky at love, but full of talent and truthful insight for others.

The Submarines are Blake Hazard (She) and Jack Dragonetti (He). Declare a New State! is ten tracks which begin with She and He together on "Peace & Hate." They employ the classic duet style of The Beautiful South or Stars on this rousing opener. Other comparisons to Stars hold true for the duration, even though the opener is the only true duet. Declare a New State then trades the He/She perspective song for song, starting with She.

This is a bittersweet pop record for rainy days. "Clouds" (by Hazard) is as heart-wrenching a song you'll hear this year. It's a lushly produced (by Dragonetti), leisurely stroll of a pop record that will commiserate with you when you're down.

We want He and She to come together again, as they do on that stellar opener, "Peace & Hate." Or do we? Mates of State have shown that indie couples can make a go of it and still delight an audience. Are The Submarines together as band only, or are He and She in love again? We'll probably have to hear the next record to know. Declare a New State: guaranteed to bring you right down but leave you a ray of hope. To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, The Submarines may be in the gutter, but they're staring up at the stars. - Jeff Kamin

How better to accurately convey the pain of breaking off a long-term relationship than to write and record songs about it with your ex-significant other? Apparently, Blake Hazard and John Dragonetti couldn't think of a more appropriate way, and what came out of those sessions (which eventually led to their reconciliation and marriage) was Declare a New State!, their first album as the band the Submarines. Needless to say, it's sad, pretty music that finds them reflecting about themselves and where they went wrong, never blaming anyone specifically but never accepting full responsibility, either. Each of them (they sing tracks both together and separately) puts pretty much everything out in the open for everyone to hear ("On Super Tuesday I wanted to die...I'll never vote again," Dragonetti whimpers in "Vote," referencing their breakup, which happened on the eve of the 2004 California presidential primary), leaving little to hide behind. In "Brighter Discontent," Hazard sings lines like "I rearranged the place a hundred times today/But the ordering of objects couldn't hide what's missing" and "All these things should make me happy...to be home again," rendering her point quite clear, but as if there were a possibility you might not understand her implications, she throws in a bridge with the phrase "Love is not these belongings that surround me/Though there's meaning in the memories they hold" to really drive things home. There are some wonderfully poignant lyrics in Declare a New State! as well ("You got a way with words/Just sentiment without revealing how you feel," Hazard states in the gorgeous "The Good Night") that work well with the gentle guitar arrangements and melodies (which don't so much jump from the record as blend smoothly in with the layers of instrumentation) the band chooses to employ. ~ Marisa Brown, All Music Guide