Diiv have made a stealth announcement of a new album, “Zirp!“, via a hotline number mailed to fans and teased on social media. Produced by A. G. Cook, the follow-up to Frog in Boiling Water is due October 30th. The hotline presents a telemarketer-style message heralding the LP as “the future of alternative multimedia entertainment,” Stereogum notes; Diiv’s own website playfully touts the record as an emissary of “the new alternative: a new genre for the 21st century.”
DIIV surprised us with this one. For one thing, we aren’t used to such a quick turnaround from Z. Cole Smith and friends. They tend to take a fairly long time between albums, but the masterful “Frog In Boiling Water” came out just over two years ago, so the recent teasers for a forthcoming DIIV LP called “ZIRP!” were unexpected.
Even more startling was the news that the band had teamed up with A. G. Cook, the PC Music founder and sonic visionary now best known for his close working relationship with Charli XCX. Cook was cooking up rock music long before “Rock Music,” but a hyperpop pioneer is an intriguing fit for DIIV given their mastery of the grungy shoegaze dirge. Now we get to hear them in action together.
“The Fountain” is very much a DIIV song, full of whispery vocals and ominous guitars. But the oscillating synth-powered beat that kicks in at the end along with the woozy lead guitar line is something new and exciting for this crew. It’s certainly not the first time a dreamy rock band has ventured into the world of electronic pop, but it’s one of the best iterations of the post-“Soon” paradigm I’ve heard in some time.
Cook says when DIIV first approached him, “it was in the spirit of destroying & rebuilding their demos, Screamadelica-style, into a finished product, but that hybrid, half-remix approach felt completely wrong to me.” Instead, he started going to DIIV shows and developing a grand theory of their music.
Coming two years after “Frog in Boiling Water”,” Zirp!” will mark the quickest turnaround for a Diiv LP yet, despite a chaotic interim period in which Zachary Cole Smith and his wife welcomed a second child and lost their home in the Altadena wildfires. Last May, the band released a stopgap single, “Return of Youth,” addressing the fallout from the fires.
the new album “ZIRP!“, out October 30th, 2026 via Fantasy Records.
The Fat Angel Sings 