DEEP SEA DIVER Billboard Heart (Sub Pop). When Jessica Dobson initially joined her bandmates in Deep Sea Diver to record her fourth studio album under that name, it didn’t go well. Sessions in Los Angeles were scrapped, and she headed home to Seattle shaken and uncertain. Maybe there wouldn’t be a next album after all. It’s to everyone’s benefit that those fears proved unfounded. Dobson connected with her longtime Seattle scene compatriot Andy D. Park and brought him on as a co-producer of the new album. The confidence that was present on previous albums returned, and the group emerged with Billboard Heart, their strongest outing to date. The lyrics across the album are scorched by feelings of uncertainty, but the music is as assured as can be. The songs are built on strong-willed indie rock given even greater depth by Dobson’s deep, rich vocals that reverberate with emotion. “Always Waving Goodbye” is reminiscent of Lucy Dacus, and “Emergency” earns comparison to the likes of Jack White and Sleater-Kinney. Mostly, though, Deep Sea Diver sounds distinctly their own. The material is grounded enough in familiar craft to be approachable while still sounded bright, new, and inventive. That’s true of “Let Me Go,” a stealthy, stalking duet with Madison Cunningham, and “What Do I Know,” which is wickedly insistent. Really, it’s true of the whole album start to to finish. It might have taken persistence on the part of Dobson and company this time around. It was worth it. Walk the sea floor with these tracks: the title cut, “Shovel,” “Loose Change,” and “See in the Dark.”

PANDA BEAR Sinister Drift (Domino). Panda Bear has long seemed like the place that Noah Lennox can go when he wants to explore the more jagged side of his creative self. The new Sinister Drift instead seems comfy as can be. Lennox recorded the album at his home studio in Lisbon and looked to a familiar pal, his Animal Collective bandmate Josh Dibb (a.k.a Deakin), to help produce. Indeed, the whole Animal Collective crew pitches in across these ten tracks, the first time that’s happened across eight Panda Bear full-length outings. Keeping up the drowsy, daydream feeling is that Lennox unpens his inner Brian Wilson. “Praise” is like Vampire Weekend with a Beach Boys filter applied, and “Venom’s In” has a distinct Pet Sounds vibe. For all these peaceful, easy feelings, there’s no way that Panda Bear is going to fully abandon delectable experimentation. “Anywhere But Here” makes wispy electronic noodling an underscore to a poem penned and recited by Lennox’s daughter Nadja, and “Just As Well” comes perilously close to when Sting dinked around with reggae on “Love Is the Seventh Wave.” Comfort rarely felt so uneasy. In addition those already mentioned, gravitate to the following cuts: “Ends Meet,” “Elegy for Noah Lou,” and “Defense.”