The mosh pits ignited at DIIV shows have always been enigmatic, yet oddly fulfilling, phenomena – out of place for a shoegaze concert, but inherently necessary. There are few better ways than a mosh to enjoy DIIV’s music. The dream-inducing guitars, best described as the sound of chasing life, obtain a near outer-body texture when you close your eyes, and so it is without effort that audiences lose control of their senses at DIIV performances.
On their debut Oshin they communicated emotions through guitar melodies in ways that were impossible for Zachary Cole Smith’s lyrics, which were drenched in reverb and delay to the point of incoherence. But where Smith’s lyrics could not be accessed, his band’s shimmering guitars provided clarity through the invocation of a simple thought: “Yes, this is a sound for this specific emotion and this is how I feel when I listen to this music.”
Three and a half years after Oshin, DIIV’s material has now been complicated by clearly perceptible dilemmas informed by Smith’s past drug ordeals and by the artistic development that has made the band’s sophomore album Is the Is Are more accessible and stimulating than their debut. It is simultaneously the old DIIV and a newly complex DIIV. Signature guitars have not been lost where vocal reverb has been expended and Smith’s musings on love and sobriety substantiate a message that is disarmingly transparent and purposeful.
Rarely does a lead single truly stand as an album’s most emotional moment, yet Smith’s depiction of helplessness and futility on “Dopamine” gives us a harrowing sense of mortality. “Would you give your 84th year / For a glimpse of heaven, now and here?” Smith asks, then reissuing the question in decreasing increments until the unimpressionable age of thirty-four seems sacred. With clearer vocals, we are now vulnerable to the dismantling effects of the honesty in Smith’s songwriting. Here and elsewhere, he deals with the loss of function and identity resulting from addiction in a manner that would be cliché outside the context of DIIV’s sound. Yet the authenticity of these sentiments, qualified by personal experience and those of characters to which certain songs are dedicated, adds credibility to his unglamorous portrayal of drug use. “Got so high I finally felt like myself,” he sings.
Is the Is Are is markedly more explorative than Oshin, crossing post-punk terrain and even emo on “Healthy Moon,” which sounds as if it has a place on the American Football LP. Smith drew inspiration from Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising, telling the Urban Outfitters Blog: “I really wanted to capture the mood or ambiance that they were able to get. It's an insane-sounding record, and it sounds really dark. So that was a record that I wanted to – not replicate – but work in that same idiom.” Is the Is Are is replete with semblances to Bad Moon Rising, the most obvious being Sky Ferreira’s Kim Gordon-esque non-vocalist contribution on “Blue Boredom.”
The desired darkness that Smith has accomplished on Is the Is Are is achieved by its vivid depiction of inner turmoil and then realized by discordant feedback. The integration of bleaker sounds and images into DIIV’s bright and vigorous acoustic palate makes the album a more emotive experience. The energy of the album varies in tempo, but each song determinedly driven and forceful, sometimes dream-like, and other times nightmarish.
DIIV broke free from the Brooklyn DIY scene with their debut on Captured Tracks, but their sophomore effort bears less definitive implications for just how big this band can become. While considerations of Cole Smith and his girlfriend Sky Ferreira becoming the new Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love are as laughable as they are irrelevant, there is credence to be found in one aspect of the comparison. Is the Is Are demonstrates a progression from Oshin that is arguably as impressive as the difference between Nirvana’s Bleach and Nevermind.