Glass Animals are back with a ravishing new single ‘Heat Waves’ and a postponement of their album Dreamland in response to the current social unrest occurring throughout the world.
In their entrancing new single ‘Heat Waves’, Glass Animals incorporates warped vocals, boppy beats, and bright ecstatic pop energy. The new single is set to appear on the band’s forthcoming third album Dreamland following the title track, ‘Your Love (Déjà Vu)’ and ‘Tokyo Drifting’. The band have said ‘Heat Waves’ is an ode to “live music and the culture and togetherness surrounding it.”This fun bop is the perfect song to get you vibing wherever you are.
In an Instagram post, lead vocalist Dave Bayley told fans the band’s new track is about normalising weakness and vulnerability in life. The track couldn’t come at a more fitting time with much of the world experiencing uncertainty and increased pressure in their lives in the face of a global pandemic.
“It’s about realising you can’t make everyone happy. And realising it’s ok to be defeated by something. We are often expected to ‘be strong’ and to swallow our sadness. Failing to do that is seen as weakness…but being vulnerable should be a positive thing.”
In the post, Bayley also spoke about how his style of singing was criticised by the press for being too feminine and weak. The singer condemned these comments and declared that this kind of behaviour was not acceptable. Check out the full Instagram post below.
“There was a review in a big publication we got early on that said i was ‘too effeminate’ because of the way I sang and that that was weak and gross. its 2020. there’s no space for that sh*t anymore.”
The single also comes with an accompanying cinematic music video directed by Colin Read showing frontman Dave Bayley wandering through the streets of empty London during the Coronavirus lockdown. Bayley eventually arrives at an empty auditorium singing alongside his virtual band members that are streamed on TV screens beside him. Watch below.
In a press release, Bayley spoke about the music video and its references to the Coronavirus lockdown exploring lack of human contact, and ultimately encouraging togetherness.
“The Heat Waves video is a love letter to live music and the culture and togetherness surrounding it. It was filmed at the peak of the lockdown in my neighbourhood in East London by the lovely people who live around me, just using their phones. These are people who are usually out at shows, in galleries, going to cinemas etc. These venues are left empty now, and many of them will not survive.”
“The song is about loss and longing, and ultimately realizing you are unable to save something… and this video is about that but for art, being together, and human contact. Huge love and thank you’s to everyone who got involved and helped out. When everyone was leaning out of their windows filming, I felt that same sense of togetherness and spine-tingling energy that happened at live shows. It made the coldness of performing to an empty room with the band stuck on screens feel even more heartbreaking.”
The band’s Dreamland album is a nostalgic journey through past memories in Bayley’s life, prompted by the band’s drummer Joe Seaward and his involvement in a serious bike accident. Bayley said in an Instagram post, “During those weeks in the hospital, it was so difficult to look forwards that I found myself looking backwards.”Bayley took this confronting time to reflect and delve deep into the past to produce a series of musical memoirs that form Dreamland.
“This album goes through many of the most confusing moments in my life…It’s about growing up, from my first memories as a little kid, to now. Quite often those moments are funny, sometimes awkward, sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes it’s about love or hate, sexuality. It’s about realising its ok to not have answers and its ok to not know how you feel about things and that its ok to be and look vulnerable,” said Bayley in a press statement.
The Dreamland album was set to be released July 10th however the band decided to postpone this date to August 7 out of respect for the Black Lives Matter movement that is taking place throughout the world. In an Instagram post, the band described how it felt very wrong to promote an album during this time of social unrest.
“It couldn’t have felt more like the wrong time to release music.”
“All eyes and minds need to be focused on civil rights and understanding how to defeat prejudice, and we made the decision to pause our album release plan indefinitely.”
As we patiently wait for the release of Dreamland on August 7th you can stream ‘Heat Waves’ on Spotify below. Happy listening!
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