DIIV Releases New Single 'Brown Paper Bag' Ahead of Album 'Frog in Boiling Water,' Due on May 24

DIIV began the rollout for their upcoming album Frog in Boiling Water by releasing a new track called "Brown Paper Bag" on Thursday, Feb. 15.

The lead single is a smooth, dreamy shoegaze track that should keep the band's fans satisfied as they wait for the full LP due out on May 24 via Fantasy Records.

DIIV hasn't released any new music since 2019's Deceiver, which was the group's final record with their longtime label Captured Tracks.

The upcoming album's title references a metaphor used by Daniel Quinn in his 1996 philosophical novel The Story of B.

"If you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water, it will of course frantically try to clamber out. But if you place it gently in a pot of tepid water and turn the heat on low, the frog will sink into a tranquil stupor, exactly like one of us in a hot bath, and before long, with a smile on its face, it will unresistingly allow itself to be boiled to death," they said in a press release.

"We understand the metaphor to be one about a slow, sick, and overwhelmingly banal collapse of society under end-stage capitalism, the brutal realities we’ve maybe come to accept as normal. That’s the boiling water and we are the frogs. The album is more or less a collection of snapshots from various angles of our modern condition which we think highlights what this collapse looks like and, more particularly, what it feels like."

The album was reportedly a challenging one for the band to record.

They were eager to get started on a follow-up to Deceiver in 2020, but those plans were scuttled by the pandemic. DIIV struggled to come to a consensus on what the record should sound like as they carried out the creative process from their individual quarantine bubbles.

This discord arose while frontman Zachary Cole Smith was busy supporting the United Musicians and Allied Workers Union, which was created that spring. The organization's first order of business was demanding that Spotify raise streaming royalties for artists.

DIIV finally reunited in 2022 and traveled to a house in the Mojave Desert with the intention of recording the whole album there. That plan didn't work out despite the band's valiant efforts. The album was put on the backburner again that November when Smith had his first baby.

Now, the record is finally done (check out the full track list below). The band is planning to share the 10 songs with live audiences across Europe next month. Tickets are available through their website.

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Check out a full list of upcoming tour dates below:

5th March - TivoliVredenburg - Utrecht, Netherlands

6th March - Ancienne Belgique - Brussels, Belgium

7th March - Mojo Club - Hamburg, Germany

8th March - Huxley's Neue Welt - Berlin, Germany

9th March - Post Tenebras Rock (PTR) - L'Usine - Geneva, Switzerland

10th March - Le Trianon - Paris, France

12th March - O2 Kentish Town Forum - London

13th March - New Century - Manchester

14th March - Vicar Street - Dublin

And here's the track list:

1. In Amber
2. Brown Paper Bag
3. Raining On Your Pillow
4. Frog In Boiling Water
5. Everyone Out
6. Reflected
7. Somber the Drums
8. Little Birds
9. Soul-net
10. Fender on the Freeway