DIIV have released a new single, ‘Return of Youth’, marking their first new material since last year’s Frog in Boiling Water. The track arrives with a video filmed in the aftermath of the Altadena wildfires that destroyed frontman Zachary Cole Smith’s home.
The new song lands almost a year after the release of Frog in Boiling Water, a record that tackled political and environmental collapse with a sharp, dark clarity. In contrast, ‘Return of Youth’ shifts focus inward. It was written, Cole explains, during the lead-up to the birth of his first child. “I imagined seeing myself through the eyes of my child,” he says, calling it “a rebirth of sorts, laced with fear and insecurity.”
That intimate perspective took on a new layer of meaning after Cole and his family lost their home in early 2025 while expecting their second child. The devastation reshaped his relationship with the song. “What makes a home? Can you ever escape the outside world?” he writes in a personal statement. “The big questions were irrelevant. You just keep on living I guess.”
The accompanying video documents the charred remains of the house, grounding the song’s fragile hope in stark reality. It’s a moment of emotional clarity from a band better known for dreamy opacity.
DIIV will tour extensively across the UK and Europe this summer, with appearances at End of the Road and Paredes de Coura among a run of headline and festival dates beginning in August.
Frog in Boiling Water was praised by DIY, Pitchfork, and Vulture, among others, for its mix of shoegaze textures and political commentary. ‘Return of Youth’ feels like a quiet exhale after the storm – though the embers are still burning.
Editors’ Picks
- DIIV
- End Of The Road Festival
- Frog in Boiling Water
- New music
- Return Of Youth
- Shoegaze
- UK tour
- Wildfires
- Zachary Cole Smith
