27 Jun 2012 — Henning Lahmann
When the news spread last fall that
Beach Fossils member Zachary Cole Smith had started a new band named Dive, I belonged to the (substantial) faction of skeptics as I couldn't avoid feeling that the time for light-hearted beach pop bands had been over since late 2010, and the group's first tune
"Sometime" kinda reconfirmed my initial suspicions. However, now that Dive is
DIIV and I've listened to the whole debut album
Oshin a couple of times, I happily admit that I was wrong: the record has a summery feel, yes, but it's also very diverse and draws on so many different influences that the cheap label "beach pop" certainly wouldn't do justice to it. In fact, it's definitely my favorite guitar album of 2012 so far, and I warmly recommend it.
I've written a few more things about it over on Ad Hoc yesterday, if you feel inclined to check that out, but in any case I recommend listening to the two songs below, "How Long Have You Known" and "Doused", that taken together give a pretty good impression of what I've been trying to say as regards
Oshin's variety, the latter being considerably darker, edgier than the former, which is indeed rather sunny and closer to Beach Fossils' oeuvre.
Oshin is out now on
Captured Tracks.
