Billboard Heart: Loser Pink Vinyl LP

St. Vincent, TV on the Radio, and Flock of Dimes, bands that have found newly ornate and magnetic ways to make indie rock by discarding notions of how it must sound or what it must say. It’s their fourth album and first for Sub Pop, and it is a coup, a triumph over self-doubt, transforming failure into an opportunity to find new freedom, belief, and strength. In the middle of July 2023 in a Los Angeles studio, Deep Sea Diver mastermind Jessica Dobson took a guitar solo but somehow felt nothing. Just days earlier, her Seattle band played a series of semi-secret shows for devotees as de facto rehearsals for a new record. The sets had gone well, but the new songs seemed muddled, Dobson’s conviction lost somewhere in the 1,000 miles between Southern California and the home studio she shares with partner, drummer, and frequent cowriter Peter Mansen. On that first night in Los Angeles, she broke down, wondering what she was doing there, and pondering how to fix it. Deep Sea Diver retreated home without an album. Did they need to scrap it, to begin again with new material? Not at all: Following a brief break, Dobson found a renewed sense of self, a trust in her vision for her band and songs and her ability to capture them. Over dinner with longtime collaborator Andy Park, a humbling confession that she needed help inspired Dobson to reimagine and reinvigorate Deep Sea Diver. This revelation set the stage for the power and brilliance of Billboard Heart, Three years before Dobson’s galvanizing dinner with Park, Deep Sea Diver issued its third album, 2020’s Impossible Weight, via the colossal indie imprint, ATO. It was a significant step up, and earned the band a groundswell of exposure and a spot on Billboard charts. But the success caused Dobson to doubt her impulses, to wonder what an idea’s impact or reception might be as much the strength of the idea itself. Moments of domestic creation, with her at the piano and Mansen on guitar in their Seattle living room, forged a path forward, and reinvigorated the pair’s songwriting partnership.