Rating:

(Nettwerk, 2006) The Submarines are quite the stereotypical little indie pop band - members John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard are married, and probably because they made Declare a New State! together; they’d broken up, but grew together again over the course of recording an album about their relationship woes. The music reflects that - sad, but cute.

(…a great time passes…)

That’s all I had written about this album for three whole weeks. I got stuck; there was nothing to say. And then a couple of days ago, it hit me. That really is all there is to say about this album. There are no exceptionally good or bad songs on Declare a New State! There are no great or terrible lyrics, voices, production jobs. For indie pop, The Submarines are about as bland and boring as it gets. After three weeks, I find myself singing along with the songs unconsciously, but then I realize it’s not because the songs are particularly catchy, it’s just that they’re easy and I’ve heard them over and over again. That’s the worst way to find yourself singing along to music, and it’s more annoying than enjoyable. Declare a New State! may appeal to die hard fans of cute indie pop, but it’s not a good choice for casual fans or as a starting place in the genre.

 1. Peace and Hate

 2. Clouds

 3. Vote

 4. Brighter Discontent

 5. Hope

 6. Ready Or Not

 7. Modern Inventions

 8. The Good Night

 9. This Conversation

10. Darkest Things

Buy album

– Kevin

This 15-beetsreview was posted on July 27th, 2006. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.