By The Submarines, 2006

Declare a New State is the sound of a break-up. It's also the sound of a reunion. In "Clouds," former solo artist Blake Hazard (Little Airplane), the great-great granddaughter of F.

Scott Fitzgerald, sings, "Tonight I won't be coming home." Then in "Hope," John Dragonetti, who used to record as Jack Drag, sings, "I should have known you were gonna drift away." The irony is that the making of their debut helped to bring the two Boston-bred, LA-based Submarines back together. Many songs were written separately and each takes the lead on different ones: Hazard on "Ready or Not," Dragonetti on "This Conversation," etc. Then, on "Peace and Hate" and "Modern Inventions," which combine Beach Boy harmonies with Eno electronics, they trade beautifully glitch-bedecked verses.

Their voices are even processed so that they merge into one. Perhaps because they were reconciling while making the album, Declare a New State is neither dark nor depressing, but rather bittersweet and optimistic, an effect reinforced as much by the reflective lyrics--"We were writing songs to make ourselves feel better," Hazard has said--as the captivating instrumental choices, like Wurlitzer in "The Good Night" and viola in "Darkest Things." Significantly, the album ends with the words, "We're coming home." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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