So it might seem odd that I didn’t devour their sophomore album, Is The Is Are, with as much voraciousness.

But that error is all mine, because the sophomore record takes the same elements and stretches them to fit an ambitious double album that is far more personal while remaining just as alluring.

One of the biggest differences between my experience with the two albums is the way I found them. When Oshin came out, the hype could not be escaped. The singles were shoved in my face before they even changed the spelling of the band name from Dive. By the time the album was released, I had been waiting for it for months. For the follow up on the other hand, I found it scrolling through Spotify months after its release and listened to it a couple times while working third shift at a plastic factory.

Sleep deprived and soul-crushed as I was, Is The Is Are washed over me like a refreshing rain, then got lost under the sheer mass of other music I was devouring to pass the time. I’ve returned to it in fits and starts over the years, but never deeply. When the palette-rewriting Deceiver came out a couple years ago, I returned to this album to trace their sonic evolution and was once again caught under its cool wash of wobbly guitars, driving rhythms, and catchy yet buried vocals. And yet, I kept it on my Discogs wantlist for years, occasionally moving it to my cart and hemming and hawing after the price demanded of a double vinyl.

But a few weeks ago, I decided to bite the bullet, and I am richer for it.

Because the truth is, this album is just as rich and rewarding as its predecessor, utilizing the same sonic formulas that made the first record so charming and expanding it in every direction. This is a bigger record in every respect: it’s over twenty minutes longer, the guitar tones are more varied (and especially gorgeous on tracks like “Bent (Roi’s Song)”), and much more introspective—in large part due to bandleader Zachary Cole Smith’s battles with drug addiction and the arrest that eventually led to.

At first, I wasn’t sure the things I loved about Oshin would translate at a larger scale. Much of what I loved about that record was its singular focus that was so tight it bordered on tunnel vision. It was an album that played wonderfully with a less-is-more aesthetic. Guitars used the same tones and licks throughout while the bass and drums stayed locked in tight, almost mechanical grooves. Smith’s buried voice spouted esoteric lyrics that lost all meaning the second you tried to parse it. It worked for forty minutes, but I wasn’t sure I needed another record of it—especially not a double record.

Boy, was I wrong. Is The Is Are takes everything I loved about Oshin and refines, stretches, and expands it. From the Krautrock noodlings of the title track to the twinkling guitars of “Valentine” to the irresistible popcraft of “Dopamine” to the shoegaze wail of tracks like “Bent” and “Mire (Grant’s Song),” everything here is just as fresh as the debut—even moreso. Where Oshin was the kind of record that hit you with its full force immediately, Is The Is Are unfolds with every subsequent listen, bringing new colors into view across its glistening surface as the angle shifts in the sun.

It’s deceptively sophisticated, especially given the childlike artwork and nonsense title, which is itself an excerpt of some scrawled text on the jacket sleeve, but the larger context doesn’t give it any more clarity of meaning. But somehow, the nonsense visual aesthetic makes complete sense with the hazy atmosphere of the album, like a life-altering dream that falls to fragments upon waking.

And now, having listened to it several times since getting it a couple weeks ago, I can’t for the life of me figure out what took me so long. Now I wonder if Deceiver holds up better than I remember too…