DIIV’s fourth album Frog In Boiling Water is one of the hits of the year, and the band is taking the opportunity to publicize it and indulge some of their passions. For a recent appearance on SiriusXM, they reprised a song which is part of their live set: Pavement’s “Cream of Gold.”
When completing the song, and the overall Terror Twilight album, Pavement were in flux. Stephen Malkmus did not have to be explicit about who he had a toxic relationship with, just that it was not going to go backwards, and would move relentlessly on, driven by his will to try and find a better place. The band took a hiatus after the album was released.
DIIV are no different from the rest of us in having things that they would like to exorcise. In line with their musical philosophy, the vocals take an equal place in the mix to all the other instruments. Zachary Cole Smith’s battles with substances may be behind him, but they would have contaminated his blood at the time, and perhaps he perceived it as the beige tones of the lyrics. The overall tone is unsettling, of a group battling with a range of things they would love to be away from, but lacking the means to get away completely.
