DIIV Share New Single ‘Return Of Youth’

The new song arrives with a video capturing the devastating aftermath of the Southern Californian wildfires, and a statement from frontman Zachary Cole Smith.

Approaching the one-year anniversary of their fourth LP ‘Frog In Boiling Water’, DIIV are circling back with ‘Return Of Youth’.

‘Frog In Boiling Water’ sees the Brooklyn-born shoegaze paragons at their most disillusioned as they chronicle the ruinous consequences of late-stage capitalism. Though stood on the edge, dizzily lured into the helplessness of the rising threat of societal collapse, there are consistent fragments of hope which keep them from toppling over and surrendering to the conditions of the external world.

DIIV made a point to emphasise these circumstances with a conspiracy theory-esque website built for paranoid doomscrolling, and music videos featuring AI renderings of the band which border on both uncanny and unnerving. Receiving critical acclaim for their candid though brutal reflections, the four-piece have since embarked on a worldwide tour in support of the album, as well as opening for Fontaines D.C. last November.

Now, they turn inward. ‘Return Of Youth’ was written roughly around the same time as other songs on ‘Frog In Boiling Water’, but it takes on a poignant weight. At the start of the year, Southern California was rocked by tragedy as wildfires ravaged the region, resulting in frontman Zachary Cole Smith losing his Altadena home.

The track shifts from the wider lens of the record to focus on the deeply personal, inspired by the perspective of Smith’s young son. Speaking on the origins of the song, he comments: “I imagined seeing myself through the eyes of my child, a rebirth of sorts, laced with fear and insecurity, discovering beauty and serenity together in the simplest places.” However, the fire re-contextualised the song, leading Smith to question hope, parenthood, and what truly makes a home.

At nearly eight minutes, the instrumentation is pensive; stripped of the confrontation within ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ and subdued by a sense of unease. The feeling trickles through the low murmur of bass against a tentative drum beat, a strained optimism suspended within sporadic key trills and the slow release of a simmering guitar melody. Smith’s vocals are encased in an airy reverb, placing the listener at the centre of his inner monologue as he weaves between admiring childhood innocence, contemplating the security of a safe space and acknowledging his greatest effort to both give and receive love and guidance. The song is accompanied by a heart-wrenching video which shows snippets of Smith’s son growing up and experiencing their beloved home, chillingly juxtaposed against the rubble that remained in the aftermath of the fires.

If ‘Frog In Boiling Water’ was a wake up call, ‘Return Of Youth’ is a reckoning—with grief, hope, and the fragile threads that tie us to meaning when everything else is lost. It doesn’t aim to offer answers so much as it dares to sit with the questions: What do we carry forward when the structures around us collapse? How do we rebuild, not just materially but emotionally?

There’s a subtle defiance in the vulnerability DIIV displays here that reminds us that it’s not all bleak. Tenderness, especially when set against destruction, can be radical. In turning toward his son, Smith looks to the possibility of regeneration.

‘Return Of Youth’ feels like a coda to ‘Frog In Boiling Water’. Rather than an afterthought, it is a necessary descent from the high-concept, socio-political sprawl of the album that plunges into something far more intimate. Where the LP painted the broader landscape of despair under capitalism’s relentless grip, this track settles into a smaller, more human frame. Recontextualised, it reminds listeners that amidst systemic failure, personal loss is just as devastating —- if not more so. The track doesn’t offer closure, and that’s exactly its strength. It leaves the wound open, not to revel in pain, but to honour it in order to let the light in.

As DIIV continue to evolve, it’s this emotional honesty and sonic patience that positions them not just as commentators of their time, but as chroniclers of the human condition for all of its fractured, distorted beauty.

Read Smith’s full statement below:

"Hi

DIIV has a new song out today, “Return Of Youth”. Sorry for the long statement

‘Frog’ was an album that focused our gaze outward at the world around us. It captured a series of snapshots of our condition, in confusion and disgust and awe.

The writing period for this album was part of a beautiful time in my life, as we prepared and waited for our first child to be born. That beauty was cut with a profound existential dilemma: how can we bring a child into this world?

The common thread running through the fragmented world of the album was hope. We've talked about it a bit. Real hope, false hope, something to give your life meaning. It's an individual journey. I found it in parenthood, but you can find it anywhere you want.

"Return Of Youth" was written before our son was born, a projection, zooming in until the larger existential dilemmas were out of frame. Where "Fender On The Freeway" found peace in the patterns of a gigantic macro, this one finds it in a mundane and simple micro. I imagined seeing myself through the eyes of my child, a rebirth of sorts, laced with fear and insecurity, discovering beauty and serenity together in the simplest places.

At the very beginning of the year my family and I lost our home and everything we owned to the wildfires in Altadena, CA. We had been preparing for the birth of our 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.

When we re-approached this song to finally release it, I couldn't help but hear the song differently in the aftermath. 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?

I found again the big questions were irrelevant. You just keep on living I guess. life happens on life's terms.

Anyway, make of the song and the video whatever you want, it's just a snapshot, albeit a more personal one this time.

Enjoy.

Cole"

Photo Credit: Coley Brown