The Submarines
Love Notes/Letter Bombs
Release Date: Apr 5, 2011
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock, Alternative Pop/Rock
Record label: Nettwerk
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Album Review: Love Notes/Letter Bombs by The Submarines
Very Good, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 8.1/10
Till death do they pop Stream Love Notes/Letter Bombs in its entirety here. Rock musicians lose their edge once they settle down and get married, goes the old adage. Whether that’s a statistically viable generalization or just a convenient explanation for an artist mellowing with age is still debatable, but the Submarines are doing their best to dispel that myth: The LA-via-Boston husband-wife duo make witty, conflicted nuptial pop about the tribulations and rewards of marriage and commitment, with each album more conflicted and more insightful than the last.
Based on rating 7.5/10
It’s easy to hate The Submarines. The Los Angeles duo’s airy, yellow-bellied indie-pop is undemanding to say the least – fluttering between gentle acoustic balladry and shimmering, vocal-heavy electro-pop. Each guise in their gentle range is sour-note free, and built to sell handheld electronics (which of course, they did.) Of course that doesn’t change the fact that, despite all the straight-shooting glamour, the songwriting anchors of John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard can craft some beautiful (if a tad interchangeable) lover’s pop.
Based on rating 6/10
The Submarines continue to erase the border between indie pop and electronica-lite on Love Notes/Letter Bombs, the couple’s third collection of tortured, peppy love songs. Having shared frontman duties on their 2006 debut, the two have settled into their individual roles by now, with Blake Hazard serving as lead vocalist and husband John Dragonetti -- who composes music for commercials and television shows during the band’s downtime -- taking responsibility for most of the instrumentation. Dragonetti’s experience with TV music has influenced the band before, with two cuts from the sophomore effort Honeysuckle Weeks winding up in iPhone commercials soon after the album’s release.
Based on rating 5/10
The Submarines are John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard, a married couple from Boston. Apparently Dragonetti and Hazard met through a friend, toured together making Phoenix-style pop-rock, but then broke up. Only then they realized that their songs as solo artists were all about how much they missed each other, so they got back together, and marriage ensued.
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