Artist: DIIV
Label: Fantasy Records
Release date: 30 October 2026
Having announced an audacious world tour for next year, beginning in Sydney no less, it would be negligent not to share New York-founded, LA-based band DIIV’s fifth album “ZIRP!” with the Neighbourhood readership.
This album emerged from a period of catastrophe, and the consequent discovery of community strength, and individual resilience. But the music itself speaks to the four-piece’s love of live performance, paired with digital layering and effects, and a willingness to head left of the path their last album. Not exactly prolific, DIIV delivered their 2024 album, “Frog in Boiling Water”, five years after the previous. The band had all the usual rock’n’roll diversions, which is not to dismiss the heinous personal cost of addiction, but it does explain the lengthy breaks between recordings. Lead singer Zachary Cole Smith had been arrested in 2013 for heroin possession, took a detour to rehab, and former bassist Ruben Perez had been booted for racist comments on social media. A temporary break-up ensued in 2016, before “Deceiver” announced the band’s return to form in 2019.
But there can be no beauty without some grit and grist, and Cole Smith knows that through hard-earned sobriety and survival. “Frog in Boiling Water” was a change of perspective for the singer, who had previously wallowed in the experience of depression and addiction. It cast a scathing eye to the “give me more, I deserve it” brutality of modern living, divided by tech overlords and working class civilians who merely scrape by above the poverty line. Having developed a palate for political commentary, Cole Smith took knife, fork, and spoon to the themes, lyrics, delivery - and yes, even outfits and performing personae - for “ZIRP!”
A satirical campaign told us the band had entered a partnership with ExxonMobil, though the actual partnership underpinning the depth of sound and vision on “ZIRP!” is the band with A.G. Cook, primarily known for his electronic wizardry. An initial proposal by the band that Cook could remix their songs once recorded was dismissed by the producer, who came along on tour with the band to see them at their wild, woolly best on stage. And having witnessed the integral role of live guitar to the band’s DNA, warped and made wondrous by a cacophony of pedals and effects, Cook has honoured the band’s best assets while enlivening it with his own toolkit.
DIIV have justifiably, and accurately, been described as shoegaze, but like rock’n’roll encompasses everyone from Iggy Pop to AC/DC, that’s a big universe to find a toehold in without creeping into territory like grunge, trip hop, nu metal and drone.
Over 11 tracks, DIIV don’t stretch the concept album to caricature proportions, thankfully. The ExxonMobil jokery and corporate suits for stage performances are largely where the “capitalism sucks” theme goes hard. The music, on the other hand, is more intimate and subtle, layering up guitar fuzz and melodies over the synth-based quirky beats and atmospherics. It’s both fun, and riddled with a sense of creepiness and looming doom.
Opener “The Fountain” sets the tone for “ZIRP!” with diffused, fuzzy guitar distortion, a lurking malevolence in the dreamy, gauzy wall of synths. The initial crackle and buzz of a guitar attuning to amps and finding its path is so human in its lovely, intentional flaws that any fears A.G. Cook might be giving us a rave club version of DIIV is thankfully diverted. Elsewhere, “Kid” is an ode to the inner child, and the traumas and coping mechanisms that perhaps never abate. Cole Smith urges us to lie on the floor, “hiding from your feelings, or something you did”.
There’s a languorous quality to Cole Smith’s croon, laden with both an innocence of seeing the world like his childhood self, and yet promising self-sabotage. The monster under the bed is always watching with hungry eyes in his world. But, to say it’s all gothic drama and doom in DIIV’s latest album would be to sell it vastly short. Past albums have wallowed in the worst of human traits and frailties, and that hasn’t been washed out with sunshine and lollipops by any means, but the outward-turned eyes, rather than “woe is me” is serving Cole Smith well.
Having gotten angry about the American aptitude for a win-at-all-costs capitalism, heightened by Cole Smith’s own experience of losing his house during the California wildfires last year, the singer is energised both personally and creatively. In this period, during which he also welcomed a son, he experienced the kindness and generosity of California friends and community, who gave the family space to stay and help to rebuild when they finally decided to remain in LA.
That exposure to the best of people, at the worst of times, is perhaps the lifeblood of “ZIRP!”, which is ultimately fun, not a term that past albums have warranted. Does that fun always translate to great individual tracks? That’s less consistent. The opening few tracks, including those mentioned above, are wickedly atmospheric, boasting clever, interweaving, distorted and hooky guitar lines that are so immediate and intimate in the way they create a whole universe within mere minutes. Elsewhere, and critics have blamed Cook’s heavy-handedness with bleeps, beats and vocal effects, the band push boundaries that perhaps didn’t need probing. Take “Trillions”, which is a bit too quirky-bedroom-pop for comfort. Cole Smith’s maple syrup voice doesn’t need an autotune any time, and if you skip this one, you’re forgiven.
Header image: DIIV at Here at Outernet, London, 3 September 2025. Image credit David Maynard/WikiPortraits, licensed under Creative Commons.
