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DIIV are about to open a new chapter. This Friday, 30 October, they will release ZIRP!, their fifth studio album, through Fantasy Recordings. Arriving just two years after Frog in Boiling Water, it offers an unusual combination: the dense guitars that have defined the group for years, production by A. G. Cook, and a determined move towards pop without abandoning their identity.
The news takes on particular urgency today, 28 October, with the release of a new single, “Dare Me”, and the announcement of an extensive international tour for 2027 that includes a stop at Primavera Sound Barcelona.
Since breaking through with Oshin in 2012, DIIV have travelled from the crystalline guitars of dream pop to heavier shoegaze and, subsequently, increasingly dense and dark alternative rock. Deceiver (2019) hardened their sound considerably, while Frog in Boiling Water (2024) made that weight a vehicle for reflecting on alienation, capitalism and social decline.
With ZIRP!, the group seem ready to change the rules of that game.
A. G. Cook, with the guitars still out front
Choosing A. G. Cook, a key figure in contemporary experimental pop and a collaborator of Charli XCX and Caroline Polachek, might have suggested a radically electronic transformation. The process ended up taking a rather different direction.
The British producer has explained that his initial approach was to take apart and rebuild the band’s demos, almost as though he were making a remix album. After attending their shows, however, he became fascinated by their live sound and decided to preserve precisely that energy.
Live drums were recorded from the earliest stages of the project, while particular attention was paid to the guitars through amplifiers, pedals and meticulously developed textures. Paradoxically, Cook says he used a computer considerably less than he normally does in his productions.
The result aims to bring together two qualities that have not always coexisted peacefully in DIIV’s music: the force of shoegaze and the melodic immediacy of pop.
The band have even presented ZIRP! as their most accessible record. That claim deserves a little irony, given the peculiar conceptual universe they have built around its release.
Pop can talk about collapse, too
The title itself refers to zero interest rate policy, associated with an era of cheap finance, technological expansion and the growth of start-ups.
DIIV have made that economic imagery part of the record’s identity, turning the language of corporations, advertising and promises of innovation into material for their songs.
The album’s introduction actually began with a deliberately strange campaign: cards mailed to fans, QR codes and a phone line playing promotional messages in the style of old telemarketing services.
Behind the corporate humour lies a concern that remains recognisable in the group’s work: the relationship between technology, consumption, economic power and a society increasingly dependent on digital platforms.
What is new is the way they approach it. Where Frog in Boiling Water responded with heaviness and unease, ZIRP! seems to seek a contrast between uncomfortable subjects and songs with a brightness rarely heard in their discography.
Four singles and eleven songs
The album’s first moves point towards that new direction.
“The Fountain”, unveiled in August, retains DIIV’s enveloping guitars but introduces a more pronounced rhythmic structure. “Kid” strikes a balance between the quartet’s familiar sound and greater melodic clarity.
The third single, “Trillions”, co-written with Cook, takes the project in a considerably more pop-oriented direction. Its video, directed by Jaxon Whittington, extends the album’s visual language through mansions, money, luxury cars and a corporate aesthetic that is as exaggerated as it is deliberate.
Now comes “Dare Me”, the record’s fourth single, accompanied by a new video and coinciding with the announcement of the world tour.
ZIRP! will comprise eleven songs and mark a new chapter for the line-up of Zachary Cole Smith, Andrew Bailey, Colin Caulfield and Ben Newman.
DIIV will play Primavera Sound Barcelona 2027
The new album will also have a life on stage. DIIV have just announced an extensive, 47-date tour for 2027, starting in Australia in February, continuing through Japan and North America, and reaching Europe in late May.
The confirmed dates include Primavera Sound Barcelona, whose twenty-fifth edition takes place from 2 to 6 June 2027 at Parc del Fòrum. The band are listed among the main festival days, 3 to 5 June, although the exact day of their performance has yet to be specified.
The Barcelona appearance forms part of a European run that also includes Paris, Lyon, Berlin, Copenhagen, Vienna, Dublin and London, among other cities.
The visit will offer a chance to hear how far the new songs retain, on stage, the guitar power Cook wanted to preserve during recording.
Fourteen years after Oshin, DIIV seem to have reached a point where they no longer need to prove their allegiance to shoegaze. They can now question their own limits.
ZIRP! arrives this Friday. Barcelona will get its chance to hear the result next June.
Sources: Fantasy / Concord · Pitchfork, 28.10.2026 · Primavera Sound Barcelona.