A Hidden Gem, Glass Animals

Hey jammers! In light of Life is Beautiful in 2 months, I wanted to cover one of the bands I’m most excited to see- Glass Animals. If you’ve never heard of them, and you like weird, techo/rap/indie/rock music, you have to check them out. I’ll tell you about a couple of my favorite tracks, and just why I love this band!

If you listen to mainstream music stations, you’ve probably heard the song “Heat Waves.” Released last year, this song’s popularity honestly surprised a bit. It’s not my favorite GA song, but it’s a good one to get stuck in your head. One thing I love about this band is their ability to juxtapose unique sounds together in one song. The song starts with a quiet voice singing the lyrics in front of a few soft beats, making the song seem slower. Then, a (auto-tuned) deep voice starts singing gibberish, already mixing up the trajectory of the song. After a strong drum beat, the familiar soprano voice starts the main lyrics of the song. The rest of the song continues in a similar pattern, hitting the drum beats and soft beats all at the right time.

The first Glass Animals track I personally ever heard was released in 2014 called “Gooey.” Now, this song is not for everyone. It’s very bizarre, the lyrics are strange, and the beats are very slow. However, lead singer Dave Bayley’s high pitch is wonderfully displayed in this one. At times, his voice even sounds eerie… like this song belongs in a Halloween movie. The long endings to each line is what gives it this feeling: “I can’t take this plaaaaace / I just wanna go where I can get some spaaaaace.” This song was a hit on the XM radio station Alt Nation, and still plays time to time.

In light of seeing them in a few short weeks, I’ll talk about a couple tracks from their 2021 album, Dreamland, that I love. My all time favorite Glass Animals track is stuck between 2 songs: “Tokyo Drifting” and “Space Ghost Coast to Coast.” “Tokyo Drifting” is amazing for two reasons - it features Denzel Curry, and the song switches gears in less than seconds of time. It naturally starts with a techno/rap type beat, followed by Bayley’s eerie alto voice singing some strange lyrics. (I love when he’s clearly going to sing the F-bomb but instead they play a funky bell sound.) About a minute into the track, in Glass Animals fashion, the beat slows and the high pitch is back. The song does a complete 180, with lyrics “Oooh now you’re lettin’ gooo / Heart beatin’ faster feet pushin’ on the floor / Ain’t nothin better / Oooh now you’re lettin’ goooo.” Once again, he draws out the ending of the lines giving it a more soprano sound. Then, the song switches another gear! Trumpets are playing, followed by a sick rap beat in the back. Listening to this, you’re thinking “wtf.” Then, Denzel Curry starts going off in the refrain. The BEST part of this song is his finishing line: “I’m back on my bullshit like Jordan on Pippen / If this is my life then I’m Tokyo Driftin’!” The beat stops right as he starts the last lyric, and then BAM - the beat drops again followed by another Bayley “oooh.” Ahhh I just love the combination of all these beats - it just makes me want to go crazy (which I do in my car everytime.)

“Space Ghost Coast to Coast” is my other contender. Learning more about this song, Bayley said “It talks about how in the 2000s, violent video games and lyrics were blamed by the media for that type of misbehaviour in teenagers…but really I think there were much bigger societal problems at play.” (read more here) After further research, this song is specifically about a childhood friend that he caught planning a school shooting. You’ll see this in the lyrics I’ll share with you. The chorus, “You think that you’re space ghost / You’re wanted coast to coast” makes me think he and his friend used to watch the old 90s cartoon together (first line), but then his friend completely changed who he was (second line). He also says “Gotta say I’m pretty glad they caught you, man / Get back to the kickball days / Scared to hold hands at school disco days / 007 Nintendo games / Bond, Hot Pockets in the microwave.” You see him go back and forth from amazing childhood memories, to wondering how his friend could change the way he did. Aside from lyrics, this song just has an amazing sound. What sounds like a cowbell between stanzas builds up the anticipation of what he will sing about next, and then the beat drops into a drum/rap beat that literally gives me goosebumps I love it so much (I’m a nerd I know.) Also, check out the COVID-19 created video. It's awesome.

I could talk about this group for pages and pages! If you’re interested in what you read here, I’ll give you a list of all their other great songs to check out.

Black Mambo

Youth

Tangerine

Life Itself

Your Love (Deja Vu)

Toes

Glass Animals isn’t necessarily a band you play on the boat, or at a party. More, it’s a band you listen to in your headphones and truly enjoy the talent of this group. Every song blows my mind at its uniqueness and the time you can tell they put into each track.

We all have our favorite bands that sound similar in each song- that’s why we like them! But with GA, each time I’ve heard a new song on the radio, I almost don’t recognize it’s them because they always sound so different. Technically, their new album is considered pop, but I would say they don’t belong in any genre at all. They combine so many different types of sounds, it can really be for anyone to listen to (except country music fans).

That’s all for today jammers! I’d love your feedback on what you want to read about, what you like or don’t like about my content, and what you want to see more of! Party on.