DIIV – ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ review: dense shoegaze ruminates on late-stage capitalism

29 May, 2024

The sonic parameters of shoegaze appear to have slowed their once intriguing diversification. Post-millenium infusions with metal (Deftones, Alcest) and hip-hop (Dälek, Clouddead) promised a bold future, however, today’s shoegazers frequently appear more interested in remaining within the familiar aesthetic boundaries of the genre’s nineties heyday.

DIIV’s ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ captures the genre’s current mode of revivalist preservation. The latest from the Brooklyn four-piece is a sedate, melancholic collection, rife with fuzzed-out guitars, leisurely tempos and hushed vocals. In short; everything you expect from a genre that seems to have frozen in cultural time.

DIIV’s musical trajectory has been one of similarly increased refrigeration. Their first two records (2012’s ‘Oshin’ and 2016’s ‘Is the Is Are’) were light-on-their-feet indie pop runouts, before 2019’s ‘Deceiver’ saw the band freeze-dry their tempos and drizzle layers of Kevin Shields-worshipping guitars atop its moody murmurings.

Read more – DIIV tackle their existential crisis: “This album just feels so hard fought”

By doubling further down on these familiar textures, ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ serves as a potent example of shoegaze undergoing the ‘foreverisation’ process, to borrow writer Grafton Tanner’s term. Rather than taking influence from the genre’s canon to build something new, DIIV’s fourth full-length reanimates the genre, squeezing further life out of its weathered components.

And for some fans, this will be more than enough. These ten songs move with a familiarly dazed, head-foggy stumble; a stupor that feels as though it’s half aware of its own resurrected status. ‘Brown Paper Bag’’s climactic vibrato leads reverberate like half-remembered dreams, while the crystalline chimes of the title track repeat like a simple mantra, transporting the listener through the annals of shoegaze’s storied history.

Several lyrics bolster this self-aware, incantatory quality. On the title track, vocalist Zachary Cole Smith sings “the future came/and everything’s known/there’s nothing left to say”. It’s a moment of potential sadness, however the song’s breezy tone eschews any emotional blows.

When it arouses itself from its fugue state, ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ touches on moments of lucid, energetic individuality. ‘Somber the Drums’ is a highlight; a dense, lively cut that draws the best out of DIIV with swirling snatches of vocals and heartrending melodies. Closer ‘Fender on the Freeway’ picks up the pace, gradually opening its eyes as it builds to a pretty and loud (by the album’s standards) crescendo.

When it reverts back to its somnambulist calm, a gentle, numbing quality befalls these simple songs. The likes of ‘Little Birds’ and ‘Raining On Your Pillow’ are lullingly linear, driven by routine drum patterns and interchangeable vocal melodies. Depending on your perspective, the sparse instrumentation is either ‘minimalist’ or ‘undercooked’, oscillating between the polarities across the course of this languid collection.

A quiet, undemanding and opaque album, ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ will appeal to a section of shoegaze fans that are keen to surrender to its impressionistic, seemingly-timeless charms. Others may ask themselves: why does it feel a bit like we’re living the same day over and over again?