Love songs have existed for millennia, but leave it to Glass Animals to give them a fresh take where love isn’t always about the honeymoon phase or heartbreak — it’s so much more than that.
The British indie-pop band, known for hits like 2014’s “Gooey” or 2020’s viral “Heat Waves,” has won over listeners with its unique, often dreamlike sound. Singer-songwriter Dave Bailey’s moody lyrics and simple harmonies blend with the experimental instrumentals of guitarist Drew McFarlane and bassist Edmund Irvine-Singer, who also plays keys, and drummer Joe Seward.
On Glass Animals’ fourth full album, “I Love You So Much,” Bailey’s fluctuating vocals sometimes reach falsetto and weave a different depiction of love into each song. Throughout the 10-track album, love is beautiful, terrible, painful, complicated and, ultimately, what connects us all.
It’s also a tricky word to rhyme, as Bailey jumbles up the vowels and mixes up “love” with words like “apartment” and “chasm.”
The album opens with “Show Pony,” a charming portrayal of a complicated, tumultuous relationship Bailey has witnessed. The summery pop-rock song tells the story of a love that sparkles from the start and then slowly fades until only memories of the good times remain. “When is this going to end?/Maybe when you die?” he sings. “Maybe you’re a fool/But he loved you.”
“Wonderful Nothing” features orchestral strings and spacey synths, as Bailey sings about what happens when hate and love collide. The track features lyrics like “I’d say burn in hell/But they’ll hate you too,” but, still, the last line admits, “I’m trying to stop/But I still love you.”
Vast images of oceans and outer space are used throughout the album, reflecting a feeling of being lost in the universe, which Bailey says inspired the album.
In the charming waltz “Lost in the Ocean,” Bailey asks himself how he can feel “so much love and so much loneliness.” When he doesn’t get an answer, he throws up his hands: “I want to scream with all the strength in my throat!”
Although a simple fluctuating chord pattern is repeated throughout the album to the point of nonsensicality, it gets better with each listen as the concepts of the lyrics come into focus.
Check out “I Can’t Make You Fall in Love Again” for example. At first glance, it’s an oddly syncopated track that oscillates between monotonous and lively. But listen again and it’s a layered, emotional song about bringing a loved one from the past closer and pushing them away. The chorus is also quite catchy.
“I Love You So Much” is ultimately an emotional exploration of love, where it’s so complicated and yet so simple. At the end of the day, it’s all we have.
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