Almost five years ago DIIV unleashed onto the world what would prove to be a genre defining album in Deceiver. A record that was universally loved by fans and lauded by the music press. A record I played constantly for months and months after its release. How do you follow that? A question that plagued the four members of DIIV, Andrew Bailey, Colin Caulfield, Ben Newman, and Zachary Cole Smith. It was clear to them the direction this new album, soon to be titled Frog in Boiling Water, had to head in. They needed to make a record that challenged them, that pushed their sound beyond any previous parameters. They decamped to a rented home in the Mojave, guitars, recording gear, and a clutch of books about humanity’s failures, psychological warfare, and Zen poetry in tow. But stress mounted as they struggled to solidify what their fourth album could be, to funnel their individual passions into a collective whole that also said something about humanities precarious moment.
After these fruitless sessions concluded they moved base to the home of renowned producer Chris Coady. With his steady hand at the helm a record slowly started to form, one that was true to their collective vision. These sessions led the band to a realisation. They needed to talk. Not just talk but get it all out. They dropped the shields of professionalism that had let them work amid the rancour and allowed themselves to get mad and bummed, real and vulnerable. Really, it could have broken DIIV before Frog in Boiling Water was finished. However tense this intervention was, it worked. It actually worked, allowing DIIV to finish the album in front of us today.
On what the album sounds like their press release has this to say.
“It is a gorgeous and haunted record, as DIIV gaze into our collective oblivion and try to articulate a trace of hope inside that enveloping gloom. Balancing rhythms first built from breakbeats and inspired by post-industrial power with guitars and vocals that often billow like diaphanous drapery, Frog in Boiling Water is mighty but breezy, greyscale but opalescent.”
Sounds like this album is going to be breaking new ground. Let’s drop the needle and see what awaits us in these grooves.
Side A opens with ‘In Amber’. Already I can tell these drums are augmented with the breakbeats they mentioned. Against those sludgy guitars it’s a really interesting contrast. The lead guitar sound is something else that’s new here. It’s almost like another voice, wailing in response to the rest of the band. Gloriously sombre and uplifting this is a really assured and sure-footed way to open an album. The time spent finding this sound has been very well spent.
‘Brown Paper Bag’ swaggers on to the speakers and sets about winning you over from the opening chords. When that second guitar starts crying over the that chorus “So there I go, torn, faded, a brown paper bag” the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Total goosebumps. The hopelessness you feel from the lyrics is completely offset by how utterly triumphant the music is. There’s a nice little nod to ‘I Only Said’ from My Bloody Valentines seminal Loveless album as well. Two songs in and I’m hooked.
We get our first glimpse back to that DIIV sound of old. ‘Raining on Your Pillow’ has melodic echoes of ‘For the Guilty’ from previous album Deceiver. This time however the band have a slow burn approach allowing the vocals to be the focal point instead of the wash of guitars. In the chorus especially you can’t help but be impressed at the care and attention the band have taken. The lyrics are delivered in such a rhythmic way they bolster what the drums are doing. Hats off to DIIV this is next level.
It’s the album title track next. It’s another relatively straightforward riff that is transformed by a hypnotic vocal melody. That drop out before the chorus is a killer move. Dynamically a lot of time and effort has gone in to making these songs interesting at all points. That’s obvious. That effort has paid off in buckets meaning as a listener you are really kept on your toes.
We’re thrown a curveball next with an almost acoustic number in the shape of ‘Everyone Out’. Played in a really unusual time signature it feels like the vocals are draped around the guitar chords rather than on top. Theres a real tension created in the song throughout, none more so than in the harmonic picked guitar sections. I’m starting to feel the dystopia the band are writing about in the music now. As the closing track to side A this feels seamless.
Into Side B we go with ‘Reflected’ getting us underway. The dystopia is real now and the glide guitar warping in and out adds to the sense of confusion and disorientation. The chorus melody isn’t as optimistic sounding as those on Side A. Could the weight of the world be slowly pressing down on DIIV as we go on.
‘Somber the Drums’ continues that DIIV shoegaze sound with a very defined hook. Again, the band utilise dynamics to the fullest weaving in and out to almost silence and then returning with that killer hook. Guitars chiming like a bell over a pulsing bass and enigmatic drum beat that just keeps building. This side is definitely leaning into a darker sound.
“Losing the war, you got another one up against the wall” is the opening to ‘Little Birds next. The futility of conflict and the horror of war is contemplated against an ominous backing. Guitars are bent out of shape and sounding like synths in places and is that a drum machine? If so, it really plays into that industrialism of warfare theme.
If you’ve been following DIIV on social media of late you’ll know all about their meta website experience https://www.soul-net.co/ that sprung up in the run up to the announcement of the new album. A mirror held up to all the new age nonsense and conspiracy theories out there masquerading as “The Answer”. That’s where we got our first taste of the song ‘Soul-net’. Another slow builder formed on the foundation of a hypnotic and steady drum and bass pattern. Atop that a discordant picked out guitar adds an uneasy atmosphere. The jagged guitars and keyboards that appear latterly just heap more anxiety and worry into the mix. As we approach the end of the album DIIV are really upping the ante.
The album comes to a close with ‘Fender on the Freeway’ an apocalyptic walk across what’s left of America. The album summed up in the line “You can’t unring a bell. We live in heaven and we live in hell”. That complex dichotomy we all abide. That we live in a time where the forces of darkness are seemingly surrounding us whilst at the same time, we persist. We cling on to our beautiful, imperfect but oh so beautiful existence. The sombre tone is not lost on me. The guitars almost like an arm round your shoulder. With a subject matter so bleak why is it I feel so optimistic after listening the to this song. It bookends this listening experience perfectly.
This album is the sound of four friends pushing that friendship to the very edges of what the bond can take. They took their brotherhood to the brink and there they found the substance that permeates every song on Frog in Boiling Water. That titlecomes from the 1996 novel The Story of B, environmentalist author Daniel Quinn spends a chapter on the metaphor of the boiling frog, using it to describe human history, population growth and food surplus. He laments we have lived through the great forgetting where we have lost our appreciation for where our food comes from and just don’t care anymore. If what we need is a great remembering then this album is a good start. A wake-up call.
Musically DIIV have pushed themselves once again to explore the genre they inhabit and rework old tropes into something fresh and exciting. The sounds on here are vital and impactful. Direct and imaginative. As a listening experience it has a very clear narrative and flow which is incredibly satisfying. This is what it sounds like when you give a fuck, when you endure. Will you?
Frog in Boiling Water is out May 24 2024 on Fantasy Records. There’s a a variety of coloured vinyl to pick from and CD version too. Check out your local record shop or head over the DIIV Bandcamp page to find out more.
You can follow DIIV on social media here…
Photo Credits
Shervin Lainez
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