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Less than four bars into New York dream-rock posterboys DIIV‘s latest single “Bent (Roi’s Song)”, and it’s pretty clear you’re listening to a DIIV record. From the droning assymetrical guitar chords washed out with reverb aplenty to its paced drumming; we were settled in glowingly by the time Zachary Cole Smith’s icy vocals penetrate “Bent”‘s sonic terrain. This time around, Smith’s cadence is an achy one, rising and falling like the sleeping chest of whoever you’re sharing your bed with, but without nearly as many affectations as were in play on their debut long-player Oshin. But his incantations aren’t distant either, coming across as intimately as a shared conversation over a pillow case, while Devin Ruben Perez’s bassline plucks along heartily enough to subtly captivate its listener without interfering with the rest of the tune’s lovely instrumentation. In all honesty, this writer is finding it difficult believing that DIIV’s impending LP Is the Is Are won’t shoot towards the top of many a music jobber’s end-of-the-year lists. The now four-piece have certainly come a long way since simply being Smith’s solo project (and a name change from “Dive”), and if their performances over the last Summer are any indication, we’re expecting great things for a lengthy amount of time from them.

Pre-orders are being taken now for Is the Is Are and doing so will nab you both “Bent (Roi’s Song)” and the previously leaked “Dopamine” right on the spot. Stream “Bent (Roi’s Song)” above.