The Submarines – Honeysuckle Weeks Review
I heard about The Submarines from some press e-mails as I’ve been following the band Headlights and found out they were in support of the Submarines. Having not heard about the Submarines, I figured it was worth a shot to check them out. I found out it was basically pop with duets between the two members. I think at this point I thought “why the f*** haven’t I heard about them before?” because they were typically the type of music I liked before I went all indie-crazy.
The story behind The Submarines seems kind of funny, they dated, broke up, wrote songs about each other and then shared these songs and got back together to make their first album Declare A New State.
The first song I instantly became enamored with was the “Xavia”, it was a gentle pop song, maybe typical and I think at face value it shows off what The Submarines are exactly, mixing in a perfect balance of male and female vocals while adding some guitar elements that enjoyable despite being “simple”. The next track I instantly liked was “You, Me & The Bourgeoisie” it’s an upbeat pop song though after some time I think the pop novelty wore off. The next track I dug was “Thorny Thicket” and soon the rest kind of followed.
While I don’t think any track has “Brighter Discontent” potential…that’s simply an awesome track the rest of the album is pretty solid and there really isn’t any disappointments. Nothing overly great unfortunately though you get the sense The Submarines are just as capable as any other bands. Some pretty nice pop elements, good singing in every song. Lyrically not as strong as I would’ve liked though.
Rating: 3.75 out of 5.
I’ve become picky with my pop it seems but generally my top of the year is some kind of independent pop.
Brighter Discontent by The Submarines
You, Me and The Burgeoisie by The Submarines
Buy this album at: Insound
[...] Declare A New State! back in ‘06 and Honeysuckle Weeks back in April/May of this year. I gave Honeysuckle Weeks a 3.75 out of 5 citing an above average followup but not quite a stand [...]