When the Submarines released Declare a New State!, their 2006 debut album, it often seemed as though more focus was being placed on the story behind the record than the record itself.

Granted, it’s a good story.

John Dragonetti and Blake Hazard were two solo artists that crossed paths within the Boston music scene. Eventually touring together and contributing to each other’s bands, they fell in love and were inseparable for four years. Unfortunately, when the couple attempted to settle in L.A., their relationship came to an end.

Like most break-ups between the musically inclined, it inspired both Dragonetti and Hazard into a period of energized songwriting. Despite their separation Hazard went to Dragonetti when she needed a place to record. Together in his studio, the two shared the material they had been working. Recognizing that the similar themes of lost love and regret were about each other, Dragonetti and Hazard rekindled their professional and personal relationship. When they married, a mutual friend mastered Declare a New State! as a wedding present.

Regardless of how this beautiful collection of electro-folk found its inception, the songs themselves are able to hold their own. Take for example the duo’s broken-hearted, “This Conversation.” Leading off with the quiet strumming of an acoustic guitar The Submarines establish a state of isolated mourning, one that seems to deliberately wish to go unnoticed. Even when Dragonetti occasionally interjects his own love-worn vocals along with the hum of a harmonica, its sound is something subdued, as though he’s trying not to wake someone sleeping in the next room.

But then, like some severe clearing of the throat, Dragonetti breaks his encased shell with the boom of several low octave piano chords, singing, “And I saw my shadow next to yours slowly fade away.” As glitchy distortion effects thread their way throughout the song with a ghost-like quality, it captures the longing anyone can feel after losing someone important: the feeling that you’re not really there.

As sad as they often sound, many of the songs off Declare a New State! imparts some residual optimism. This is particularly evident on the album’s closing song, “Darkest Things.” With Hazard taking over lead vocals, delivering a quaking siren’s call (likening herself to a more fragile Jenny Lewis from Rilo Kiley), the song itself glides. Supported by a melodic guitar picking and steady roll of percussion, you can’t help but get the impression Hazard is smiling in spite of her own slow, melancholic tone. This is because she is only waiting to recite the song’s last three lines. As a viola accompaniment sways like a clock pendulum, Hazard fades out singing: “I’d have waited a lifetime for a sign / Only to fall apart when love arrives / but we’re coming home.”

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