DIIV – Return of Youth
DIIV returns with “Return of Youth”, their first release since last year’s acclaimed album “Frog in Boiling Water”. The new single arrives weighted with profound personal significance, as it emerges in the aftermath of the devastating California wildfires that destroyed frontman Zachary Cole Smith’s home earlier this year.
In contrast to the political commentary of their previous album, this single finds peace in intimate moments. “I imagined seeing myself through the eyes of my child,” Smith shares, describing the song as “a rebirth of sorts, laced with fear and insecurity, discovering beauty and serenity together in the simplest places.” The track’s introspective qualities are evident in Smith’s vocal delivery, which moves like an inner monologue through the dreamy, melancholic instrumentation, as he yearns for simpler times: “Guide me on a path that leads/ Innocent and dumb/ To a newfound naivety.”
The song’s meaning took on additional layers after Smith and his family lost their home to wildfires in Altadena, California earlier this year. The tragedy occurred while they were preparing for the birth of their second son. “We were living in the beautiful world at home that I had imagined in this song, and at once that world was gone,” Smith reflects. When approaching the song’s release, Smith couldn’t help but hear it differently: “What makes a home? Can you ever escape the outside world? Is hope just a delusion? Is anyone actually prepared to be a parent? How CAN you bring a child into this world?”
Despite these weighty questions, Smith concludes that “the big questions were irrelevant. You just keep on living I guess. Life happens on life’s terms.” This philosophical resignation gives “Return of Youth” a haunting resonance, as the song balances between fragile hope and stark reality.
The release comes almost exactly a year after “Frog in Boiling Water”, which received widespread acclaim from publications like DIY and Pitchfork for its blend of shoegaze textures with pointed commentary. DIIV will tour extensively across the UK and Europe this summer.
