- Diiv is a New York based dream-pop band that evolved from the solo project of Zachary Cole Smith. The album flows between tracks with guitars that seem to be caught in reverie, ambient vocals a brooding bass with softly beating drums consistently accenting the drive and dynamic. With this combination it really seems like the music is gently floating inside your brain as you listen. These seventeen tracks were to be Smith’s personal masterpiece and originally intended for release in 2013, but thanks to life the band it had to push it back almost three years; for me, it seems well worth the wait.

Their debut, Oshin (released in 2012) was well received by critics and music lovers, with Diiv riding a wave of popularity that Beach Fossils (whom Smith was originally a guitarist for) had yet to achieve. Despite this enthusiasm the band made an astute choice, developing beyond their simple, reverb-soaked, pop aesthetic to avoid becoming being boring and/or repetitive. Nonetheless the band does not stray from its roots, simply deepening their ideas and broadening their aesthetic. Their pop sensibility is sunk into rivers and torrents of sound, rolling out on tangents with instruments and abandoning vocals for minutes at a time. That is not to say that there are not any poppy numbers -songs such as Dopamine , Under the Sun and Is The Is Are notably standing out- but it's clear, this album was meant to be a far more sensory experience than anything else.

I have read some reviews that complain, accusing Diiv of cheaply reproducing Sonic Youth’s Bad Moon Rising. The influence is definitely there, but they're hardly stealing...is it even possible to copy an early Sonic Youth song? The only possible exception is when Smith’s girlfriend (Sky Ferreira) is singing in Blue Boredom. Lazy comparisons to indie god-heads notwithstanding, Is The Is Are is a deeply emotional and, frankly, enormous double album; Diiv have created nothing short of a masterpiece. I welcome you to get washed away and lost in its dream.

- Kacper Majchrowski.