Frog In Boiling Water

About

DIIV has always been a musical shape-shifter—subtly mutating into new forms that are deeply felt by those who pay close attention to its sonic texture. The band’s debut album, 2012’s <i>Oshin</i>, was double-dipped in the chiming guitars of classic indie pop and post-punk’s intense persistence; <i>Is the Is Are</i>, from 2016, stretched lush dream-pop weavings across its wide canva, while 2019’s <i>Deceiver</i> dove headlong into shoegaze’s bottomless bli. For its first album in five year, the quartet led by Zachary Cole Smith takes its catalog into several thrilling new turns: At various point, <i>Frog in Boiling Water</i> conjures the sweeping drama of goth à la <i>Seventeen Seconds</i>-era The Cure, slowcore’s crushing and hypnotic beauty, and the metallic textures of vintage grunge. DIIV has never sounded so devastating, so ominou, and so utterly pristine as it does on <i>Frog in Boiling Water</i>—a triumph in fidelity that’s owed as much to veteran indie-rock producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Future Islands) as it is to the band’s locked-in interplay. Smith and Andrew Bailey’s guitars drip like melted candles over the vast expanse of “Soul-net,” while “Brown Paper Bag” stomps and splashes with every cymbal crash, courtesy of drummer Ben Newman. This might be the heaviest music DIIV has ever put to tape, and its doomy sound perfectly matches the album’s foreboding theme. .

via Apple Music

The Clerk says

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