The Submarines: ''Declare A New State!''

For the Submarines' Blake Hazard and John Dragonetti, it was love at first take—but the second take is even better. With their debut album Declare A New State, the longtime collaborators have forged a beautiful and sonically inventive record. From the haunted, sing-song buzz of "Peace and Hate" to the swoony pocket symphonies of "Modern Inventions" to the delicately ornamented "The Good Night," Declare A New State is both gorgeously bittersweet pop music and a tribute to the unexpected wonder of a second chance. Not bad for a record that the duo made with no thought that it would ever be released.

Longtime pillars of the Boston music scene who now live in Los Angeles, Hazard and Dragonetti first crossed paths as solo artists. Dragonetti—a.k.a. Jack Drag—made records for the labels HepCat, Sugar Free, and A&M; he was both a peer and kindred spirit to the likes of Beck, the Eels and Apples in Stereo. After forming a proper band during his time on A&M, Jack Drag "ended the way it started," Dragonetti says —i.e., he went back to making indie records as a one-man home recording visionary. But as much as Dragonetti loves his recording technology, he remains quite fond of instruments. "I have a room full of toys," he acknowledges. "But I'm still really an advocate of having your source sound come from outside the computer."

Until then the duo hadn't even thought about the record as a project that would find an outside audience—a big reason why it was so satisfying. For Dragonetti, "it was a rare opportunity to experience something like when I first started recording," he says. "That feeling of, 'yeah cool, I'm gonna put these tapes together for my friends.'" Hazard experienced the process almost exactly the same way, though for her it was more about emotional immediacy of the material—both in lyrics and the melodies. "It's raw and genuine and unfiltered," she says. "There's not as much artifice as I think there normally would be, when you're sort of conjuring topics to write about."

While the circumstances of its making put Declare a New State in the same category as such classic troubled-couple records as Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Light or Rosanne Cash's Interiors, this one has a happy ending—and thus a sonic palette that's more colorful and poppy. "We were writing songs to make ourselves feel better," says Hazard. "Our break-up was more sad than angry." With its big chorus and harmonies, "Modern Inventions" is, says Dragonetti, "kind of the smiley break in the middle," while the majestic "Darkest Things" ends the record on a hopeful note ("…we're coming home").