{"id":42583,"date":"2016-02-26T18:11:17","date_gmt":"2016-02-27T00:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/?p=42583"},"modified":"2016-02-26T18:12:39","modified_gmt":"2016-02-27T00:12:39","slug":"diiv-is-the-is-are","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/2016\/02\/26\/diiv-is-the-is-are\/","title":{"rendered":"DIIV: Is the Is Are"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright wp-image-42584\" src=\"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/61ZcAmzusbL._SY300.jpg?fit=300%2C300\" alt=\"61ZcAmzusbL._SY300\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/61ZcAmzusbL._SY300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/61ZcAmzusbL._SY300-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/61ZcAmzusbL._SY300-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/>Zachary Cole Smith will remember this album for its guitar driven melodies, hard to decipher vocals and a timbre that could be described as floaty or wispy. So, anybody going into <em>Is the Is Are<\/em>, DIIV\u2019s follow-up, would expect those same components that made <em>Oshin<\/em> a stand-out. Indeed, all of those components are intact here. Anybody who was a a fan of <em>Oshin<\/em> won\u2019t find any reason to dislike <em>Is the Is Are<\/em>. But at the same time, anyone who wasn\u2019t a fan of <em>Oshin<\/em> won\u2019t find much here to change their minds on the band.<\/p>\n<p>That is not to say that there is no new direction to be found on <em>Is the Is Are<\/em>. The vocals, while still not prominent in the mixing, are more successful in giving some new hooks to tunes. For instance, in \u201cDopamine,\u201d the verses all start with the line \u201cShots ring out \/ I\u2019m soaking \/ eardrums shaking,\u201d and even though that is hardly what is happening in the song when listening to it, it gets caught in your head.<\/p>\n<p>The album also gives a sense this time that members other than Smith were major contributors to the songwriting process, and it especially shows in bassist Devin Perez\u2019s inputs. In <em>Oshin<\/em>, the songs were heavily reliant on Smith\u2019s guitar work, but here, songs such as \u201cValentine\u201d are more inclined to let the rhythm sections do the work for most of the song with the guitar only coming in at certain portions. These developments make for a more heterogeneous listening experience, but overall, <em>Is the Is Are<\/em> stays in familiar territory.<br \/>\n<b><br \/>\nRecommended If You Like: Wild Nothing, The Drums, Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Recommended Tracks: 2 (Under the Sun), 4 (Dopamine), 10 (Mire (Grant\u2019s Song))<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Do Not Play: 12 (F*ck), 15 (Napa)<br \/>\n<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Written by Adam Raimond on 02\/26\/16 <\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shoegaze outfit, DIIV, brings dreamy vibes both familiar and present on this sophomore release. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11906,"featured_media":42584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3235,3230,181],"tags":[4199,1012,4400,3367],"class_list":["post-42583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","category-music-reviews","category-new-music-rotation","category-rock-rotation","tag-adam-raimond","tag-diiv","tag-is-the-is-are","tag-rock-rotation"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/61ZcAmzusbL._SY300.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11906"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjhk.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}