17. Deep Sea Diver – Billboard Heart

Billboard Heart was my introduction to Deep Sea Diver, meaning that – as well as being a great record in itself – it unlocked an excellent back catalogue for me too. I now feel like I’ve been a fan for years. This is extremely classy indie rock, with carefully layered instrumentation, some outstanding hooks, and glossy production. It has both sharp points and soft edges, which are nicely intermixed, and melds its indie core with various electronic influences in interesting ways. At its best, like on the propulsive double-header of ‘What Do I Know’ and ‘Emergency’, the New Romantic tinged ‘Shovel’, or the emotional closing ballad ‘Happiness is Not a Given’, this record is killer. It does have few dips, though: tracks like ‘Tiny Threads’ and ‘Be Sweet’ are perfectly good but don’t do it for me in quite the same way as this album’s best two thirds do. That occasional drop off is what ultimately stopped Billboard Heart from troubling the upper reaches of this List: had it been as good as its best moments throughout it would have been in the running for top spot.