DIIV – ‘ZIRP!’ review: pop meets politics on their most adventurous record yet

The first indication that DIIV were moving into more political territory came as they rolled out their last record, 2024’s ‘Frog In Boiling Water’. The album’s release was marked by a hoax appearance on Saturday Night Live where they were introduced by Fred Durst, a chaotic website replete with conspiracy theories, and a live show punctuated by spoof announcements suggesting that the band had entered into a “creative partnership” with ExxonMobil. It was a tongue-in-cheek campaign that concealed broiling anti-capitalist anger beneath the surface, and that offset the murky, lyrically opaque set of songs they were promoting.

The Los Angeles four-piece have carried this approach into their fifth album, ‘ZIRP!’, which refracts the dystopian state of modern America through the prism of their lightest, poppiest record to date. A.G. Cook, who produced the record, was apparently first approached by the band with the idea of remixing their initial demos in the style of Andrew Weatherall on ‘Screamadelica’. He swiftly threw out the suggestion, instead committing to following DIIV on tour and understanding what makes their live sound tick.

It’s paid off. The band lean into hooks and melody more than ever before on the standout likes of ‘The Fountain’ and ‘Dare Me’, which are pacy, playful and place frontman Zachary Cole Smith’s vocals front and centre; they’re evidence that Cook has moved smartly to preserve the essence of what makes DIIV one of the best live bands of their generation. There is fizz and crackle to the guitars and, while there’s new ground broken on the groove-driven ‘Underground’ and the breezy ‘My Star’, it’s My Bloody Valentine who remain the key influence, particularly on the incendiary ‘Us Against You’.

That track’s title is indicative of the wholesale manner in which DIIV have carried the political slant of their ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ tour into ‘ZIRP!’, which is frequently furious lyrically. The title is taken from the acronym for the US economic lever (zero interest rate policy) that allowed tech startups like Spotify and Uber to upend their respective industries at the expense of the worker. Meanwhile, tracks like ‘Evangelizer’ and ‘Trillions’ wear their anti-capitalist values firmly on their sleeves, the former making dark reference to “Palantir-Pfizer collab pills” and “BlackRock master keys”, and the latter being a sardonic takedown of spiralling greed.

It’s thrilling to hear DIIV put their money where their mouth is like this; to watch as they make their biggest ever sonic shift at the same time as writing their most avowedly political record. Crucially, ‘ZIRP!’ is not a nihilistic album; scratch far enough beneath the surface and you’ll find Smith offering up solutions to our late-capitalist hellscape, ones rooted in community and togetherness, perhaps inspired by the experience of rebuilding his neighbourhood in Altadena after losing his home in last year’s Los Angeles wildfires. Out of that catastrophe, he and his bandmates seem to have found renewed purpose; ‘ZIRP!’ is ambitious, unflinching and, ultimately, optimistic.