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ESSENTIAL NEW MUSIC

Essential New Music: Blake Hazard’s “Possibilities At Sea”

When last heard from, Blake Hazard was, in her own words, “adrift.” 2013’s The Eleanor Islands was a breakup album, an exploration of the aftermath of the dissolution of her musical and romantic relationship with John Dragonetti, also known as Jack Drag and Hazard’s partner in L.A. band the Submarines. But now, rather than look at the world from an isolated island, Hazard allows herself some guarded hope. Thus Possibilities At Sea. Produced by indie-rock vet Thom Monahan, the album is full of light, breezy, slightly off-kilter pop, occasionally glossed with horns, like a softer version of Sam Phillips, a more earnest the Bird And The Bee or, to reach way back, a less cloying Frente!. Hazard’s bright voice has a charming crack in it, which tempers the lilt of songs like “How To Love Halfway” and “Oh Anatolia” and is central to the melancholy of “Living It Up” and “Some Quiet No Scene Town.” “This heart’s going to love you, it keeps carrying on,” Hazard sings, expressing the resilience at the heart of Possibilities At Sea.

—Steve Klinge