Post 3d: CONTEMPORARY REVIEW 2: Is The Is Are - DIIV

Contemporary Review: Is The Is Are - DIIV

7.6/10

Background: DIIV is an indie rock band from Brooklyn, which is surprising given the weird love they have for beach music. Their leader, Zachary Cole Smith, has recently become a Cobain-like quasi-celebrity for his public antics. DIIV exists in a certain niche in indie music that has become very crowded in the past few years: Dream pop with a heavy shoegaze influence. These bands usually carry a heavy reverence for the beach (ex. Beach Fossils) and an even heavier reverence for the stylistic trappings of Loveless-era shoegaze. DIIV's music, which is pretty much summarized by their solid debut album, Oshin (more beach references???). Buried vocals, dreamy, ringing guitars, strong bass lines and lyrics about... heroin addiction and depression! Good times man. Good times. 

Review: In the incredibly dense field of dream pop, all of the leaders in the field have something that make them stand out. Deerhunter stands out by being heavier and scarier than the rest of the field. Beach House stands out in the dream pop field by being well, dreamier than the rest. DIIV stands out through their incredible ability to create tension. These songs are filled with tension, which is usually derived from the band's underrated rhythm section. Underneath DIIVs chiming guitars and catchy muted vocals lives an angry monster made of ultra precise drumming and sprinting basslines. 

Overall, this album could be described in one sentence. This is an 8.5 album that makes some 6.5 errors. Similar to my last reviewed album, this thing is just too long for its own good. However, unlike Malibu, the excessive length here cannot be as easily forgiven, and this entirely due to the albums second major error: lack of variation. On one hand, there are no glaringly bad songs on this album. DIIV has a formula and a locked in aesthetic, and when the values are plugged in the formula yields a result every time. Yet, for most of these tracks, that's all it feels like DIIV is doing. Just plugging presets into a formula and getting an outcome completely devoid of any organic feelings. 

When DIIV decides to break away or improve their formula, however, the results are astounding. Tracks like "Dust" take DIIV's typical, tension filled formula and kick it up a few notches, while a track like "Under The Sun" highlights DIIV's underrated sense of melody. "Dopamine," the lead single and best song on the album (as well as best cover art on an album that has terrible cover art and an even worse name), takes both aspects that makes DIIV enjoyable and combines them. 

In all, this is a great album that makes a few mistakes. If I was ranking this album based solely on his enjoyable it is, it would deserve a score in the mid to low 8s. Unfortunately, there is only so much of this album that can be digested in one sitting. Smith falls in love a little too much with his own aesthetic towards the middle of this album, and it is fairly hard to stomach 40 minutes of the same song at a time. Compared to OSHIN, I would definitely venture to say that the high points of this album are higher, but the lows... the lows are lower. 

HIGHPOINTS: "Dopamine" "Dust" "Under The Sun" "Valentine" 

LOWPOINTS: None. Everything is the same here, except it just isn't remarkable in a way that would put it on the high points list or demote it to lowpoints. 

Recommended Albums: Loveless - My Bloody Valentine, Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division, Joshua Tree - U2, Dirt - Alice In Chains (Not similar in the slightest musically. Recommended if you want more songs about heroin addiction, except even bleaker.)