Love songs have existed for millennia but leave it to Glass Animals to give them a refreshing spin, where love isn’t always a honeymoon phase or heartbreak — it’s much, much more. The British indie-pop band, known for hits like 2014’s “Gooey” or 2020’s viral “Heat Waves,” has with its unique, often dream-like sound. Singer-songwriter Dave Bayley’s moody lyrics and simple harmonies meld with experimental instrumentals from guitarist Drew MacFarlane and bassist Edmund Irwin-Singer, who also play keys, and drummer Joe Seaward.
On Glass Animals’ fourth full album, “I Love You So (Expletive) Much,” Bayley’s up-and-down vocals reach the occasional falsetto and weave a different depiction of love in each song. Over the course of the 10-track album, love is beautiful, terrifying, painful, complicated, and, ultimately, what connects as all. It’s also a tricky word for rhyming, as Bayley twists vowels to somehow match “love” with words like “apartment” and “chasm.
” The album starts strong with “Show Pony,” a catchy vignette of a complex, roller coaster relationship that Bayley grew up seeing. The summery pop-rock song tells the story of a love that burns bright off the start and then fades out until all that’s left is the memory of the good times. “When’s it going to end?/Maybe when you’re dead?” he sings.
“Maybe you’re a fool/But he loved you.” “Wonderful Nothing” introduces orchestral strings and spacey synths as Bayle.