New York — A tremendous storm, a cliffside mansion, and an existential crisis inspired Glass Animals' latest album. That produced what? Love-themed 10-track set. The indie-pop band's leader, songwriter, and producer Dave Bayley was alone in an Airbnb house on stilts below Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, sick with fever and wondering about Glass Animals' role in the universe.
A strong storm threw trees down the hill, flooded roads, and threatened his rental property. “My existential crisis went to the next level,” Bayley laughs. Bayley watched families, couples, friends, and neighbors embrace after the disaster. “I felt like I was sitting in space in this house, looking down on the city.” A musical idea emerged.
A few intense weeks of composition created the 10-track “I Love You So F(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)ing Much,” a follow-up to their 2020 third album, “Dreamland,” which sold over 12 million copies. Republic Records releases the new album July 19.
Songs about longing and former relationships exist. Love is like getting hogtied and shoved into a Corolla trunk. Bayley: “Each try to kind of touch on a different side of love. “I love building a world.”
The first single, the anthemic “Creatures in Heaven,” recalls a poignant occasion. “You held me like my mother made me just for you/So close I broke in two.”
Love's craziness inspired the album title, which may be interpreted passionately, exasperatedly, or a million ways in between. Chaos is always present. You just have to accept and enjoy it, he says. “That pulled me out of that dark spot.” First song “Show Pony,” about a difficult, up-and-down relationship Bayley grew up observing (“All those times he did what he pleased/Boy, those scars must really run deep”), is the album's menu.
Several tracks use space imagery, such as “A Tear in Space (Airlock)” or “On the Run,” or portray the hazardous pull of infatuation in “Wonderful Nothing.” Beautiful lines include “I think we’re formed/from old Lego/in a bedside drawer/where the stray things go.”
With each Glass Animals album, Bayley writes more openly. For “How to Be a Human Being,” he penned each song from another perspective. Last song, “Agnes,” was about a band friend who committed suicide. It was Bayley's most personal song.
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