Changing musical styles can either make or break a band. Sometimes it’s much better to stick with what is already working than to throw a wrench in the gears, and Brooklyn band DIIV definitely stuck with what it knows for its newest release, Is The Is Are.
Maybe the band was just playing it safe, but Is The Is Are doesn’t sound exceptionally different from past material. Any way you look at it, DIIV’s music is always beautiful.
The band began production on Is The Is Are back in 2013, but a multitude of factors, including vocalist, guitarist and songwriter Zachary Cole Smith’s drug use, delayed the writing and recording process for three years.
“I’m out of signs / At the end of the line / But I’ll be fine / When it’s time I’ll know what to do,” Smith sings in his staple timid, reverbed vocals on “Out of Mind,” the album’s dazzling opener. It’s an incredibly solid and enjoyable opener to the album, but also reveals much of the content of Is The Is Are, a reflection of Smith’s questionable decisions. Being “at the end of the line” both drove and hindered the process of writing Is The Is Are, as Smith’s drug addiction took hold during the beginning of production and recording.
In 2013, Smith and his girlfriend, musician and model Sky Ferreira, were arrested for drug charges after police found ecstasy and heroin in Smith’s van, according to NME.
The publicized arrest both romanticized the couple’s drug use in Kurt and Courtney-esque fashion as well as pigeon-holed Smith and Ferreira into stereotypical “druggy losers,” Smith said in an interview with Pitchfork.
Reputations, hardships and time delays aside, Is The Is Are does its job and carries the torch as a solid sophomore album. Filled with perfectly mixed pounding bass and drums, ethereal guitar-ridden soundscapes and Smith’s pleasantly calming vocals, Is The Is Are follows the signature styling of the band’s debut, Oshin (2012), very closely. The band’s second studio album is not necessarily a photocopy of its predecessor, though.
Structurally, Is The Is Are is a long double album. Running 17 tracks, the release is slightly over an hour long, but luckily it doesn’t feel that way. The album’s gliding nature is easily faded into the background – though is also intricate and dynamic enough to demand attention.  
The album weaves reflection and redemption into each track — revealing some of Smith’s darkest times — and thus humanizing him out of the one-dimensional “druggy loser” persona. This makes the album, although stylistically similar to DIIV’s 2012 debut Oshin, arguably more emotional and personal in nature.
Though inherently beautiful, as shoegaze-influenced indie-rock usually is, the album is also drenched in darkness, clearly displayed by songs like “Bent (Roi’s Song)” and “Yr Not Far” that push forth aspects of melodic ominousness.
“I can’t shake the terror of my life fleeting, minute by minute / Even when I can’t imagine another day waking up in it / Fought my mind to keep my life, but my body’s putting up a tougher fight,” Smith drowsily speak-sings in the hypnotically dark “Bent (Roi’s Song).”
Traumatizing and damaging experiences might serve as a catalyst for a change in direction, but a return to the familiar can also be rewarding. Although released years later than expected, Is The Is Are is an incredibly immersive release. The album manages to multitask, without a doubt painting a beautiful picture, but also peeling back the ugly truths of personal life and human nature.
Listen to Is The Is Are on Spotify below: