The fourth album from Deep Sea Diver – aka Seattle his ’n’ hers duo Jessica Dobson and Peter Mansen – began at a low point for songwriter Dobson. A series of club dates intended to road-test new material had left her convinced she had nothing to say, and early recording sessions in Los Angeles were a struggle.
Yet that period of self-doubt ultimately proved a blessing. Having dug deep, the band’s latest is a beautifully wrought collection of hazy indie-pop, brimming with zinging melodies – but with just enough gauzy angst to resist any suggestion they’re neutering their sound in the hope of cynically broadening their fanbase.
Billboard Heart starts with the chittering jangle-rock of the title track – a floaty epic wherein Dobson’s expressive voice plays against a warbling keyboard and crystalline riffs from guitarist Elliot Jackson and bassist Garrett Gue. It’s fraught, sprawling and chuggingly catchy – an addictive blend of mosh-pit fervour and alt-country melancholy. You can see why Pearl Jam handpicked the band to support them across North America in late 2023.
That balancing act between sweet and menacing is continued with single ‘Shovel’. “I’m carrying a shovel… it’s pointed like the tip of Mount Everest,” snarls Dobson against a backdrop of rising shoe-gaze anguish.
Best of all is ‘Let Me Go’, a collaboration with California folk-rocker Madison Cunningham, which sounds like something from Taylor Swift’s Folklore channelled through a prism of early grunge (fittingly, Billboard Heart is Deep Sea Diver’s debut release on iconic Seattle label Sub Pop). Darkly delirious and quietly rollicking, it’s one more bright point across an LP twinkling with indie gems.
