Deep Sea Diver Billboard Heart
Released Feb 28, 2025 Sub Pop Records
Established consensus 6 professional reviews Updated Oct 2, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
Deep Sea Diver's Billboard Heart arrives as a taut, often anthemic comeback that blends synth-infused indie rock with bruised songwriting and moments of guitar-driven catharsis.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Billboard Heart
5 critic mentions
“Billboard Heart is Deep Sea Diver’s fourth album, and their first after the breakout success of 2020’s Impossible Weight.” — Pitchfork
Let Me Go (feat. Madison Cunningham)
4 critic mentions
“In one of the album’s best moments, guitarist and singer-songwriter Madison Cunningham helps juice up "Let Me Go.” — Paste Magazine
Emergency
3 critic mentions
“Emergency’ kicks off with a riff that feels like a call to arms, propulsive and full of life” — Clash Music
Full critic consensus
Deep Sea Diver's Billboard Heart arrives as a taut, often anthemic comeback that blends synth-infused indie rock with bruised songwriting and moments of guitar-driven catharsis. Across six professional reviews, the record earned a 76.5/100 consensus score, and critics repeatedly point to muscular riffs, widescreen production, and Dobson's yearning vocal delivery as the album's defining tensions between menace and sweetness.
Critics consistently name the title track “Billboard Heart”, the collaboration “Let Me Go (feat. Madison Cunningham)”, and the propulsive “Emergency” among the best songs on Billboard Heart. Reviews from Pitchfork and Clash highlight storming finales like “See in the Dark” and “Emergency” for their soloing and momentum, while Paste, Hot Press, and Under The Radar praise the title track and “Let Me Go” for marrying synth sheen with snarled guitar and vivid, sometimes macabre lyricism. Across professional reviews, themes of resilience, existential dread, and hope through darkness recur, with critics admiring the record's versatility - from hazy indie-pop to lean, early-00s muscle.
While most reviewers offer measured admiration, opinions split on balance and polish; some praise the anthemic breadth and songcraft, others prefer the album's quieter, weightless moments and note occasional overreach in production. The consensus suggests Billboard Heart is worth listening to for fans seeking the standout tracks and a band that turns self-doubt into cathartic, tuneful rock. Below, detailed reviews map where the album's strongest moments - especially “Billboard Heart”, “Let Me Go (feat. Madison Cunningham)” and “Emergency” - land across the record.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Billboard Heart
What Do I Know
Emergency
Shovel
Tiny Threads
Loose Change
Always Waving Goodbye
Let Me Go (feat. Madison Cunningham)
Be Sweet
See in the Dark
Happiness Is Not a Given
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 6 critics who reviewed this album
Critic's Take
Deep Sea Diver's Billboard Heart reads like the aftermath of a creative low, but it blossoms into hazy indie-pop where the best songs - “Billboard Heart”, “Shovel” and “Let Me Go (feat. Madison Cunningham)” - carry the album. Ed Power's sentences are conversational yet exacting, noting the title-track as "fraught, sprawling and chuggingly catchy" and praising the duo's knack for balancing sweetness with menace. He singles out “Shovel” for its snarled delivery and shoegaze angst, and calls “Let Me Go (feat. Madison Cunningham)” the record's best, a darkly delirious collaboration that twinkles among indie gems. The narrative keeps the reviewer's measured admiration front and centre while answering listeners searching for the best songs on Billboard Heart.
Key Points
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The best song is “Let Me Go (feat.
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The album's core strength is its balance of hazy, zinging melodies with gauzy angst, creating indie-pop that feels both sweet and menacing.
Themes
Critic's Take
Deep Sea Diver retain their signature sense of weightlessness on Billboard Heart, but here the band adds crunchier guitars and soaring synths to broaden their palette. The soaring title track “Billboard Heart” serves as the perfect introduction, its gorgeous instrumentation showing why it ranks among the best songs on Billboard Heart.
Key Points
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The title track “Billboard Heart” is best for its gorgeous instrumentation and role as the record's perfect introduction.
Themes
Critic's Take
Deep Sea Diver’s Billboard Heart feels like front-page rock - propulsive, moody and unflinching. Ellen Johnson praises the album’s best tracks, especially “Tiny Threads” and the title track “Billboard Heart”, for marrying blistering guitar with sly synthwork and vivid, sometimes macabre lyricism. Madison Cunningham) as one of the album’s high points, and frames “What Do I Know” as a dancey counterpoint to the record’s shadows. The result is indie rock that could lift Deep Sea Diver toward bigger stages while still feeling intimately, fiercely their own.
Key Points
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The best song is "Tiny Threads" for its frenetic arrangement and defining lyrical lines that capture Dobson’s musical truth.
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The album’s core strengths are its blend of grunge-tinged guitar, crisp synthwork, moody lyricism, and confident songwriting.
Themes
Critic's Take
Deep Sea Diver’s Billboard Heart centers its best songs around muscular guitar catharsis and unguarded yearning, with “See in the Dark” and “Emergency” standing out. The review’s voice emphasizes Dobson’s widescreen, off-kilter soundscapes and the way solos rescue moments when words fail, so queries about the best tracks on Billboard Heart point to those storming finales. Mornings to nights, the record rewards repeat listens - its propulsive first half and pensive back half give listeners clear places to find the album’s most thrilling moments.
Key Points
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The best song, especially "See in the Dark," is defined by cathartic, frenzied guitar solos that resolve emotional intensity.
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The album’s core strengths are Dobson’s commanding vocals, detailed arrangements, and a blend of propulsive riffs with hopeful lyricism.
Themes
Critic's Take
Deep Sea Diver return with Billboard Heart, a comeback that leans into anthemic momentum and assured songwriting, with the title track and “Emergency” standing out. The reviewer praises the grandiose, epic opening of “Billboard Heart”, and the propulsive, early-00s muscle of “Emergency”, while noting the band’s versatility on quieter moments like “Loose Change”. Dobson’s vocals and the guitar work are repeatedly singled out, giving fans plenty of moments to revel in and critics reasons to admire the craft. This is an album where the best tracks - notably “Billboard Heart” and “Emergency” - crystallize the record’s strengths and make clear why listeners searching for the best songs on Billboard Heart will find much to enjoy.
Key Points
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The title track is best because its grandiose, epic opening functions as a confident statement of intent.
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The album’s core strengths are anthemic momentum, versatile songwriting, and captivating vocals and guitar work.