Recently, I’ve become addicted to the June-released album All Or Nothing by garage band Brit-punks The Subways. I think their first album was technically a better one; their 2006 release, Young For Eternity, delivered the brazen, cohesive punch of a spanking new band, whereas All Or Nothing seems a little insecure and lost in the identity crisis of the dreaded sophomore-album slump. However, it is for those exact reasons that I find All Or Nothing a more interesting album.

I’ve always been interested in the inter-band dynamics behind an album’s creation. The Subways’ All Or Nothing was written around the time that guitarist Billy Lunn and bassist Charlotte Cooper ended their long-term relationship. There are plenty of songs that deal with failed relationships between a band member and some heart-breaking stranger outside of the band. Listening to All or Nothing, I found myself thinking about what happens to the success of a band as a whole when the romantic relationship between two of its members fails.

What did Gwen Stefani’s break-up with Tony Kanal do for No Doubt? It gave them Tragic Kingdom, the album that skyrocketed them to multi-platinum fame. Same with Fleetwood Mac; though they already had t 13 albums to their name, it wasn’t until two nasty inter-band break-ups took place that Mac produced what is now universally known as one of the best-selling albums of all time, Rumors. When Carrie Bronstein and Corin Tucker broke up, Sleater-Kinney got popular. After Jack and Meg White got divorced, The White Stripes were formed. The list goes on.

In 1975, the husband-and-wife duo Captain and Tennille released their trademark hit, “Love Will Keep Us Together.” This piece of lyrical advice may have worked for “Captain” Daryl Dragon and Toni Tennille; they are (a bit unbelievably) happily married to this very day. All the other lovers doubling as band-mates out there might do better to listen to Fleetwood Mac, who stressed that it was not love but “the chain” that would keep them together — “the chain” meaning the band.

Although the music might be over between Billy Lunn and Charlotte Cooper, it has only just begun for The Subways…which is a good thing. All Or Nothing might have been hailed by a lot of critics as lackluster and not as good as their first album, but the more encouraging adjective I’d like to use to describe it is “transitional.” Who wants to be “Young For Eternity” anyway? Just as a chef can’t make a good omelet without breaking eggs, a band can’t write a good album without a few broken hearts. The Subways are on the right track, and although Charlotte and Billy may have broken up, rock history points to the fact that The Subways most likely won’t. (The inter-band relationship that’s proven more likely to screw things up for everyone involved is not of the romantic persuasion. It’s called sibling rivalry. Just ask one of The Subways’ Britpop precursors, Oasis).

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