DIIV

DIIV combines shoegaze bliss with grunge catharsis to confront personal pain and political injustice with equal depth. On 2012's debut album Oshin, the influence of Nirvana and My Bloody Valentine -- as well as Malian music -- on singer/songwriter/guitarist Zachary Cole Smith was evident. However, the band's sound deepened and broadened on 2016's nakedly confessional Is the Is Are and on the heavier-sounding explorations of trauma and addiction of 2019's Deceiver, which came to be seen as a standard-bearer for 2020s shoegaze. DIIV burnished this reputation with the thoughtful...