new album - After Mega-Hit 'Heat Waves': Glass Animals are back
British band Glass Animals achieved overwhelming success with the hit "Heat Waves" and the accompanying album "Dreamland." "Heat Waves" is considered one of the most successful British songs of all time with billions of streams. In the German charts, the song was a top contender in 2020. Now, the follow-up album "I Love You So F***ing Much" is set to be released.
Glass Animals is indeed a band: four men on guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums. However, the formation from the university town of Oxford is actually the project of songwriter and singer Dave Bayley. A thoughtful, introspective yet imaginative man – and a self-proclaimed independent artist.
"Many prominent people contacted me"
After the success of the over twelve million copies sold album "Dreamland," Bayley received numerous calls: "Many prominent people contacted me. They wanted to work on the new Glass-Animals album with me," the frontman revealed to the music magazine "Rolling Stone."
For a while, he allowed himself to be swayed and attended writing sessions. But: "I learned a lot and I wasn't sure if that was really 'me.' It didn't feel authentic as a true Glass-Animals project."
When he was alone in a house in Los Angeles, sick with Corona, it occurred to him: "You don't have to do all the things that others recommend." He realized that he was an introverted person and that there was only one option for writing new Glass-Animals songs: "I have to do it alone."
Indie-Rock, Trip-Hop, Pop, Psychedelic-Rock, and Electro
The other band members Drew MacFarlane (guitar, keyboards), Edmund Irwin-Singer (bass, keyboards), and Joe Seaward (drums) might not object to their singer's ego trip. After all, Bayley has proven that he has a lucky hand for writing hits.
With the ten tracks of "I Love You So Fing Much," Bayley and his bandmates aim to build on their previous success. Like on the predecessor album, elements of Indie-Rock, Trip-Hop, Pop, Psychedelic-Rock, and Electro come together on "I Love You So Fing Much."
Musically, a mix that – not just in the opener "Show Pony" – puts a strong emphasis on the synth-pop of the 1980s, but refuses to be pinned down to a clear stylistic classification. Although it's about love in a broad sense, the creative flyer covers a wide thematic range: "It's about space, existential crises, and intimate love stories," he says.
These thematic contrasts led to the meeting of spacious space rock landscapes and distorted retro guitar sounds, among other album highlights. The slow nihilism ode "Wonderful Nothing," the emotionally charged, R&B-rooted "Never Enough," and the perfectly poppy "On The Run" stand out. A follow-up to "Heat Waves" is not immediately apparent.
The upcoming album "I Love You So Fing Much" by Glass Animals, which includes hits like "Show Pony", is expected to perform well in charts not just in the United Kingdom, where they achieved significant success, but also in Berlin, Germany. Despite the numerous offers from prominent figures in the music industry in the United Kingdom, including those who wanted to collaborate on the new album, Dave Bayley decided to write the new songs for Glass Animals solo, as he found it to be the most authentic approach. After the release of "I Love You So Fing Much", fans can anticipate a variety of music genres, such as Indie-Rock, Trip-Hop, Pop, Psychedelic-Rock, and Electro, much like the successful album "Dreamland" that had many new releases.
