GLASS ANIMALS
Announce album
DREAMLAND
Out 10 July

+ Reveal title track with video

.

.

“…an inventively produced, impishly executed triumph.” – THE GUARDIAN

“Adding some exotic sounds to that delicious sticky Glass Animals pop flavour, the single has a darker tone and an infectious RnB beat.” – TRIPLE J

“Bayley – who quit his university medical degree to focus on the band – danced for the 80-minute set like he was at his first end-of-semester party.”  – SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

“It’s phenomenally exciting to have that sense of danger back in music. It’s subtle, malevolent and utterly charming noise, and if Glass Animals turned out to be buttering you up with a cannibalistic lick of the lips, you’d let them gnaw away.” – THE LINE OF BEST FIT

“It comes as no surprise at all that the production on this is top-tier, and, with an addictive flute-like progression and epic guitar riffs, we have it on repeat.” – HILLY DILLY

.

.

From the confines of lockdown, Glass Animals have announced that their third studio album Dreamland will be released on 10 July via Polydor/Universal Music. Alongside the album announcement, Glass Animals have shared the weighty and gorgeous title track ‘Dreamland’.

The track is accompanied by an utterly unique, self-made video that Dave (and a small remote creative team) have conjured up to introduce the new album. Using handwritten instructions, set in Dave’s own home and filmed entirely via ZOOM, it’s an absurd but strangely comforting dreamlike trip that pays tribute to the track (and the album) perfectly. It follows in the footsteps of  ‘Your Love (Déjà Vu)’, the first track the band shared earlier this year which has been met with unanimous praise from fans and critics alike.

As Dave explains, “So…here is the first track. Each line asks a question that’s explored in a later song. It’s not a banging single (the next one we’ll drop slaps!) but the words here could be considered a table of contents for the album as a whole. A little peek into what’s coming. I put every ounce of my soul into this album. It’s the most ambitious and challenging thing we’ve done by a distance. The album is called Dreamland, and I can’t wait for you all to hear it. Love, Dave x”

.

.

At the heart of Dreamland lies the quietly enigmatic Dave Bayley, the band’s frontman and producer extraordinaire who’s work extends far beyond that of Glass Animals, with credits including Joey Bada$$, Flume, Wale, Khalid and most recently Denzel Curry on the late 2019 single ‘Tokyo Drifting’. For Bayley, Dreamland is a nostalgic memoir of his life so far, covering expansive and difficult ground while holding nothing back. It’s packed full of personal experiences, none more emotional than when the bands drummer Joe Seaward was involved in a monstrous bike accident in July 2018 which threatened his life, and that of Glass Animals altogether.

In Bayley’s own words, “The idea for this album came at a time of confusion and uncertainty. My best friend was in the hospital. I didn’t know if he’d make it. The future was damn scary and completely unknown. During those weeks in the hospital, it was so difficult to look forwards that I found myself looking backwards. Digging around in my mind, pulling up old memories, finding comfort in them even if they were uncomfortable in themselves. Speaking to friends and family, I’ve realised that a lot of people are experiencing a similar sort of confusion now. Everything that we thought we could see clearly in front of us has been thrown into the air, and all the while, we can’t be out finding our footing. We can’t be out creating new memories, so…we’re diving back head-first into the old ones. I hear that in conversations. I see it in what people are watching on TV. In what we’re listening to. In what we’re eating. In dreams.”

Bayley’s is a fascinating story – born in America to a Welsh father and Israeli mother, Dave spent the first seven years of his life in small-town Massachusetts and the next seven in Texas, before moving to the UK at the age of 14.

Bayley says, “This album goes through many of the most confusing moments in my life. It’s about growing up, from my first memories as a little kid, to now. Quite often those moments are funny, sometimes awkward, sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes it’s about love or hate, sexuality. It’s about realising it’s ok to not have answers and it’s ok to not know how you feel about things and that its ok to be and look vulnerable. In fact, all of that is quite exciting. So often life asks us for binary yes or no answers. It asks us to conform and to fit in. But the world is so much more interesting and colourful than that…it’s a much more fluid and uncertain place.”

Thankfully, Seaward learned to walk, talk, and (eventually) drum again, and earlier this year, against all odds, Glass Animals returned in full lineup (albeit briefly) to the road to play some of the venues they played when they first started out as a band. The aim – to celebrate with the fans what they have built, what they have and what they very nearly lost (as well as test out some of the new record). With all touring plans currently on hold, Glass Animals’ objectives remain very much the same. In extraordinarily unique ways, the band are using the current situation to connect, create and celebrate with their fans across the globe.

Bayley continues, “I spent weeks devastated that our big plans to bring this album to you in real life on a stage were shattered…but, somehow, in all the uncertainty and before all the unknowns…right now seems like the most insane, but also the most apt time to reveal this record. growing up is a strange time, the hospital was a strange time, and here we are in a strange time again.”

Strange times, however, seem to suit the new era of Glass Animals and their new Dreamland narrative. From the confines of his home studio, Dave has been performing covers and sharing them online such as his strikingly unique versions of Nirvana’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box’ and Lana Del Rey’s ‘Young And Beautiful’ – which have proved incredibly popular.

The band have also recently released an entirely unique Open Source website where they have shared a special set of audio stems, samples, layered artwork, 3D files, and various other materials which fans can use build their own music, Instagram lenses, animated videos, illustrations and beyond and share them with the band and each other. On Saturday 2 May from 5pm BST (Sunday 3 May from 2am AEST) they aired their own Dreamland TV Network – 4 hours of prime Glass Animals viewing, using the band’s Instagram as your remote to surf through hours of unseen footage across the 7 different TV channels (Facebook, Twitter, Tik Tok, Twitch, YouTube, Instagram and glassanimals.com).

.

LISTEN TO TITLE TRACK ‘DREAMLAND’ NOW HERE 

DREAMLAND IS AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER NOW HERE

DREAMLAND
Tracklisting:

Dreamland
Tangerine
((home move: 1994))
Hot Sugar
((home move: btx))
Space Ghost Coast To Coast
Tokyo Drifting
Melon and the Coconut
Your Love (Déjà Vu)
Waterfalls Coming Out Your Mouth
It’s All So Incredibly Loud
((home movie: rockets))
Domestic Bliss
Heat Waves
((home movie: shoes on))
Helium

.

Follow GLASS ANIMALS
WEBSITE 
FACEBOOK 
TWITTER 
INSTAGRAM
YOUTUBE 
SPOTIFY 
APPLE MUSIC

.

.

AMNPLIFY – DB