Not long before he put the finishing touches on a new DIIV record, Zachary Cole Smith told Pitchfork, “We’re trying to extend the life of guitar music.”
Thatap a hell of a goal for an band, including a controversial and critically beloved shoegaze band like . Guitar music, of course, has shown no sign of dying out, despite increasingly valid concerns that itap run its course. What Smith is saying his band wants to do is show that there are still new and interesting directions to take.
And as if that wasn’t enough pressure to put on yourself, Smith has the added stress of feeling like DIIV’s second album needs to be good enough to redeem everything thatap happened since their 2012 debut, “Oshin.” He did a short stint in rehab after he and girlfriend Sky Ferreira were pulled over with heroin and ecstasy in the car in 2013 and almost kicked bassist Devin Ruben Perez out of the band for making sexist, racist and homophobic comments on 4chan in 2014. In 2015, drummer Colby Hewitt left DIIV to deal with his own substance abuse issues. Naturally, “” is a response to all of it.
DIIV rose to its self-made challenges gracefully and thoughtfully. The guitar-driven pop that blossoms over an hour on “Is the Is Are” is a beautiful and probing reflection on addiction and other struggles. The band’s instrumental exploration sometimes meanders into self-indulgence — helping push the album’s runtime over an hour — but for the most part itap fun to follow them in the pursuit of new textures. Perez’s bass is powerful force and gets equal playing time alongside Smith and Andrew Bailey’s seamlessly woven guitar work. And with the help of guitarist/keyboardist Colin Caulfield and new drummer Ben Newman, DIIV becomes a perpetual motion machine.
Get too lost in all that and you might miss the emotional turmoil Smith’s voice so quietly glazes over. “Bent (Roi’s Song)” and “Dopamine” look substance abuse in the face, which of course requires a look in the mirror. “You are the sun and I am your cloud,” Smith sings in half apology and half self-pity. And so it goes throughout the album as DIIV works through its problems and looks for hope or healing, in the end sighing that “itap no good.”
It all amounts to an ambitious, dense and detailed record — the kind you could spend hours with, peeling apart the layers. “Is the Is Are” might not be rock’s saving grace, but itap a testament to its power.
