Album Review: Glass Animals’ ‘Dreamland’ Creates an Intimate World of Wondrous Sound
After a three-year hiatus, Glass Animals returns with their third album that tells personalized stories by renovating their signature indie-electronic style.
Written by Keylee Paz
Photo Courtesy of This Song is Sick
Known for combining multiple electronic elements and bizarre songwriting styles, Glass Animals is no stranger to fabricating its own psychedelic genre. With their debut album Zaba in 2014, the band members aimed for abstract and diverse tones, unlike what anyone had ever heard before. The band took its style to the next level with its second studio album How to be a Human Being, which tells the stories of fictional characters illustrated on the album cover who are forced to face the truth of reality. However, before heading on the road to tour with Beck in 2018, drummer Joe Seaward was nearly killed after a lorry struck him riding his bike in Ireland, resulting in the band cancelling all of their shows and emerging into a temporary hiatus.
After Seaward’s miraculous recovery, Glass Animals made an unforeseen comeback with “Tokyo Drift,” featuring Denzel Curry in November 2019. While they were scheduled to play a few shows across North America before the pandemic struck, no one expected a full length album. Dreamland was officially announced on Friday, May 1 on Instagram, revealing the album’s empirical viewpoint and vibrant neon visuals. It was originally scheduled for release on July 10, but was postponed to Aug. 7 because of the band’s decision to show support for the significant protests revolving around the Black Lives Matter movement.
It should come as no surprise that Glass Animals experimented with hip-hop inspired rhythms and off-the-wall songwriting on this album. Dreamland discusses intimate themes of trauma, coming-of-age, nostalgia, and heartbreak by diving deep into the memories of lead singer Dave Bayley. Unlike their previous albums, the songs depict a variety of his own stories, from a childhood friend he had while living in Texas to different failed relationships. The overall musical compositions draw from Bayley’s musical influences, such as the Beatles and Dr. Dre, creating a more evolved sound than in previous records. After a heavy use of third-person narratives in their earlier work, Dreamland successfully recreates their usual lyrical style to tell stories of their own.
Opening track “Dreamland” addresses each of the topics Bayley touches upon in the album, serving as a table of contents. The song captures the reflective ambience of the album through its mellow piano rhythms. Beyond the majestic instrumental, the lyrics foreshadow the childhood stories and traumatic events later tracks dig into. As the song was written during the pandemic, the lyrics switch from a retrospective view to a current one, reflecting the band’s changing opinion of the world. As the perfect opener for Dreamland, the titular track successfully gains listeners’ attention by quickly establishing that this album would be completely different from their previous work.
Throughout the album, Glass Animals debut its new alleviating sound that matches the project’s nostalgic aesthetic. The band’s use of dreamlike musical sequences is explored with one of the album’s overall themes: heartbreak. In the track “Melon & the Coconut,” the distorted autotune vocals portray the idea of strained relationships and contrast the song’s theme with its musicality. The following track, "Your Love (Deja Vu)" works as a smooth transition from softer, harmonious sounds to upbeat songs that give off similar vibes as their previous albums. Containing funky rhythms, their signature electronic style, and mesmerizing vocals, the track sees Bayley personify vulnerability with a lucid story about wanting a connection and intimacy without having to consider the future.
Besides their more surreal sounds, Glass Animals also continues to experiment with hip-hop beats and straightforward lyrics after their successful collaborations with rappers Joey BadA$$ and Denzel Curry. “Space Ghost Coast to Coast” tells the story of Bayley’s childhood friend from Texas who was caught planning a school shooting after Bayley moved to the UK. With lyrics such as “Pokémon and bottle rockets / Dunkaroos and Real Monsters / Capri Sun straw in the bottom,” Bayley illustrates their adoring friendship with nostalgic terms and expresses how hard it was for him to grasp that kind of news. He also highlights the lyrics’ disturbing content with the use of steady rhythms, snappy basslines, and heavy backing vocals.
Photo courtesy of Republic Records
The album’s standout track is the intensifying and emotional “It’s All So Incredibly Loud,” which is filled with metaphors about painful silence due to fears of hurting someone else. The track doesn’t feature any electronic beats, but rather focuses on triumphant drum cadences, a dramatic orchestral arrangement, and Bayley’s angelic vocals. The song begins with a low volume and drowned out instruments, gradually increasing in dynamics and overlapping verses. As Bayley sings, “Whispers would deafen me now / You don’t make a sound,” the strings and drums are so loud and powerful, the lyrics are almost inaudible. It’s the strategic, intertwining composition of the lyrics and instrumentals that helps listeners visually interpret the raw emotion examined in the track.
A poignant conclusion to the album, the five-minute track “Helium” uses a range of emotional poetry. Bayley starts the conversation with insecurities, but ends with an optimistic note — everything will eventually be okay. The ending of the song returns to the title track’s rhythm but is played in a major key, switching the once melancholic mood to a more joyful tone. The dazzling guitar riffs and simplistic vocals capture the essence of Bayley’s new perspective of life, bringing all the album’s themes together.
Glass Animals proved its potential with Dreamland, taking it a step further with new experimental sounds and lyrics providing exalted projections. The band also manages to successfully revisit its Zaba roots by pairing standout aesthetics with captivating melodies that allow fans to visualize the album. What makes the project so easy to digest is the band’s more personal touch, with the addition of home video interludes and confidential stories with tracks like “Domestic Bliss” and “Heat Waves.” Bayley’s emotional draw from his own experiences creates a more intimate listen and impacts the band’s musical style for the better. By mixing together shimmering dance tunes, troubling nostalgia and a hint of compelling fun, Dreamland is their best work to date.