Can the sound of an apocalypse be both jarring and beautiful? Absolutely, if it’s scored by Divine Sweater.
The Boston band’s track “Two Steps Forward” floats through a dream-pop jam into a kind of feverish saxophone and keyboard breakdown before the instruments fade away. After two seconds of silence, a keyboard riff picks up and Meghan Kelleher sings, “Felt the ground fall through on Commonwealth Avenue/Brighton broke in two down Commonwealth Avenue.”
“That part in ‘Two Steps Forward’ is supposed to be the moment when the people realize that the world is ending,” Kelleher told the Herald.
The track sits at the center of Divine Sweater’s concept album, the recently released “Down Deep (A Nautical Apocalypse).”
Concept albums can bring to mind grandiose, often bloated prog or metal opuses. Instead, “Down Deep” is both more tender and poppier. Kelleher and her bandmates – multi-instrumentalist Sean Seaver, keyboardist Steve Lin, bassist Alex Goldberg and drummer Christ Southiere – get spacey and strange while retaining a smart sense of melody and never lose the thread of the song.
“During the pandemic we were writing a lot, I was reading a lot of science fiction, and we were listening to a lot of sci-fi related albums by the Flaming Lips and David Bowie, so we decided to go for a concept album with a sci-fi feel,” Kelleher said. “But the songs had to stand on their own.”
“Down Deep” tells the story of a world crushed by climate change and the few survivors who live out their lives on submarines. But, if you don’t listen closely, it’s also just a great indie rock record with really hooky songs.
“We thought a lot about not wanting it to be over the top, to be so catastrophic or depressing that it’s not our music anymore,” Kelleher said. “We try to make music that is catchy, emotional, and lyric driven. We all wanted to keep those catchy and emotional moments while throwing in some stuff that’s bizarre.”
“Down Deep” takes more than two steps forward for the band. But it is also filled with tracks that recall Divine Sweater’s breakout songs – 2019’s horn-powered jam “2×2” and 2021’s dreamy ballad “I Knew You Better.” The apocalypse-themed album is helping the band conquer our not-yet-sunken world.
The group has sold out a string of dates ahead of its July 8 homecoming at the Sinclair. The band has also racked up a couple million streams on Spotify. Kelleher says if the band does blowup she wouldn’t be adverse to “Down Deep” becoming a Broadway musical. But first, Divine Sweater has to finish this cycle of touring – even if the band is already done with a ton of new tracks.
“We write a lot, and seem to always be one album ahead, and we have a full album that is already recorded,” Kelleher said. “So we want to concentrate on this album right now on this tour because the next album is pretty different.”
Of course, when you make a nautical-themed doomsday record, it’s not all that hard to make your next LP pretty different.
For music, details and tickets, visit divinesweater.com