DIIV: Oshin Review

Where the wild things are?

Album: Oshin
Artist: DIIV
Genre: Dream-pop/Post-punk


8.4/10




You wanna get into dreampop?  Listen to Oshin by DIIV.  This debut LP from ex-Beach Fossils guitarist’s new project DIIV (pronounced “dive”) manages to create a sound that is solidly dreampop, but has roots in rock and post-punk.  Each songs builds upon an actual, dare I say it, groove, while the vocals both mesh and fly above the instruments, specifically the reverb-tastic guitar lines.

     The album begins with an instrumental named “(Drunn)”, which is basically the topic sentence in the paragraph that is Oshin.  “(Drunn)” starts off strong with a steady drumbeat and looping bass line that propels the song.  The guitars enter and layer on top of each other, shaping guitar lines and solos on top of each other until the track almost has a uniform sound, and this dynamic continues through the next two songs “Past Lives” and “Human”.  Then I hit “Air Conditioning”, the album’s longest song at 4 minutes 30 seconds, a solitary tone swells, and the bass comes in with a simple riff that descends and then ascends before resolving itself every measure.  A guitar comes in and builds off of that line, before another guitar comes in to craft a melody from that line before heading into a near-entire-song-lasting solo, interrupted by a haunting and shimmering vocal line.  “How Long Have You Known” is another track that executes repetition well, this time with the vocals as well.  This is the clearest track in terms of lyrics: “How long have you known?/How long have you shown it?/Forever?/Forever.”  This chorus repeats and swells, the questions seemingly lost within a sea of sounds.  This pattern of melodic textures building on top of bass and drum grooves continues throughout the entire album.

       The last two songs on this record are also the best also the hard to discern vocal lines are crafted on purpose.  “Doused” begins with an almost heavy bass line that drives the hardest out of all the songs on this LP.  It’s the darkest track, with the melody taking a more minor key direction and the drums more prevalent.  “Home” sings a soothing and resolving mantra: “I’ll never have a home/Until you come home”.  Oshin is a journey across an ocean, an ocean of love, an ocean of fear, but most importantly an ocean of sound.  DIIV does not want you to focus too hard on the lyrics, the themes they want to express lay within the melodies, the textures, the sounds.  That’s where the beauty lies.  Their dive gets an 8.4 from me.

FAVE TRACKS: (Drunn) Part 2, Air Conditioning, How Long Have You Known, Doused, Home