"Dreamland" by Glass Animals
I have been enchanted with Dreamland since its release on August 7, 2020. This third album from British band Glass Animals strikes an alluring balance between the danceable and the heartfelt, carving out a new space for genuineness in playful absurdity.
With Dreamland, the band deviates from the distinct sounds established on ZABA (2014) and How To Be A Human Being (2016). ZABA conjures images of exploring an otherworldly jungle while HTBAHB tells the stories of eleven “characters,” many of whom are based on people the band met while touring with ZABA. Their newest album combines electronic dance beats with dreamy, distorted effects and calls to mind the way that explorations of memory, dreams, and plans for the future often take strange and unexpected paths.
Dreamland is the most introspective of the three albums as Dave Bayley dives into reflections on his childhood. The album includes four audio “home movies” underscored by music. “((home movie: 1994))” provides a seven-second transition between the upbeat, dancey “Tangerine” and the more mellow (yet still danceable) “Hot Sugar,” which has come to be one of my favorite Glass Animals tracks. On “Hot Sugar,” Bayley sings of how easy it is to confuse admiration with love, repeating the line “I don’t wanna be around you / Just wanna be like you” as he explores his feelings for someone that leaves him awestruck.
The longest home movie, “((home movie: rockets)),” features young Dave Bayley saying “a young rocket!” and then talking with (presumably) his mother. In the YouTube video Glass Animals uploaded for the home movie, the young Bayley shows the camera a “rocket” that he has made by stacking Crayola markers. Synth strings swell, and the bassline leads into “Domestic Bliss,” a track that Bayley wrote about a childhood friend’s mother who was caught in an abusive relationship. In “((home movie: btx)),” toddler-Bayley babbles and his mother asks, “Do you want to dance? Are you watching Sesame Street?” From this tender place, the album then takes a sharp turn as punchy, aggressive bass and synths underscore the next song, “Space Ghost Coast To Coast.” The catchy beats in both “Domestic Bliss” and “Space Ghost” help to balance the emotional intensity of their lyrics. Transitioning from home movies into these two heavier tracks reflects the album’s interest in the way that youthful hopes and expectations are often shattered by unfortunate adult realities.
After focusing on the lives and relationships of others in HTBAHB, Bayley turns to exploring complexities within his own relationships through Dreamland. He has called “Your Love (Déjà Vu)” a “conflicted booty-call anthem” about relationships that one knows are toxic yet can’t seem to cut off. In “Heat Waves,” Bayley sings about realizing that he became an entirely different person over the course of a relationship. The closing track, “Helium,” ties the whole album together. “I guess I want you more than I thought I did,” Bayley admits in the chorus, and the sing-song tone creates a sort of self-taunt as he is forced to confront the depth of his emotions. The melody from the album’s titular opening track returns, preceding a fragment of another home movie. The album ends with Bayley’s mother saying, “Say bye-bye,” and the young Bayley exclaiming, “Bye-bye!” I have a special fondness for albums that create a sort of cycle, and Dreamland does this masterfully.
I’ve enjoyed wandering through the nostalgic, insightful, and whimsical world that Glass Animals created with this album. I blast Dreamland while driving through my hometown and listen to it while lying in bed, just before drifting off to sleep. I’ve listened to it while in the bath with my phone resting on the tub and my ears submerged underwater, creating the sensation that the dreamy soundscape is being imported directly into my brain. The “dreamland” that Glass Animals built has seamlessly slipped into the landscape of my day-to-day life. Dreamland prompts me to think about my own childhood, relationships, and dreams as Bayley shares with us this vulnerable and exciting collection of his own memories.
– Julia Adamo