A cross between indie rock and indie electronica was bound to happen. Hell, it probably already has ”“ see MGMT et al for potential candidates. Add to the potential hybrid explosion this effort from The Drug Models Love entitled Slow Hope Parade, an album perfect for that 3 am drive you honestly shouldn’t be making. It’s ambiance and ambience packed into the car with you.There’s a lotta (restrained) hope in this record, and not just in the quasi-cryptic title. It seems that the overriding theme of the album is love and its accompanying highs and lows through the eyes of Kevin McGinnis, the man behind TDML. There’s an odd yet beckoning dichotomy that exists within Parade. Musically, it’s a sweet summer night; lyrically, it’s a resentfully cold winter. To wit, the keyboard hook and the drumbeat in ‘Last First Light’ tango around McGinnis’ vocal track like a scene out of an ‘80s brat pack film. Yet the lyrics tell a slightly different story: “Don’t ask me to stay clear/ I’ve sacrificed myself for the voices I hear/ This is my life/ It’s all I can know.” Elsewhere, the title track features a cacophony of coming-and-going sounds that mesh together like rush hour traffic over (and under) lyrics like, “So you think you can stay sober?/ When I carve you out, you can’t help but bruise yourself/ Now that these days are all gone and you’ve lost so much time, time, time/ Who’s gonna become your lover?” Even more cynical is “There’s perfection in disaster and you were born to play the part” from ‘Palm Satellites,’ a spacey acoustic number. Perhaps most telling is the final quarter of ‘From the Earliest Hours,’ where McGinnis repeats the line “It’s only love” over and over as if it were a bitter pill that he can’t bring himself to swallow no matter how many times he says it.On the surface it would appear that Kevin McGinnis is simply bipolar and just needs a hug given the collection of damn near antithetical pair of music and lyrics found in Slow Hope Parade. But that assessment misses the point of The Drug Models Love. When explored and considered, it’s clear that TDML is meant to achieve catharsis both for McGinnis himself and his listeners ”“ something that’s admirable on so many levels. The record’s final song, ‘Myth Glorious,’ finds him posing the following question: “Where do we find the strength to carry on?” Apparently, it’s right here. 85%The Drug Models Love on Myspace