Album Review: "I Love You So F***ing Much" - Glass Animals

Photo Credits: When The Horn Blows

Nearly four years since the release of Dreamland, Glass Animals is back with their fourth studio album, I Love You So F***ing Much. The iconic psychedelic/electropop band began teasing the album in February 2024, leading up to its release by spreading posters, dropping hints on SoundCloud via the username “hal900000,” and changing the band’s website to reflect the album’s underlying space theme.

TRACK LIST

1. Show Pony

2. whatthehellishappening?

3. Creatures in Heaven

4. Wonderful Nothing

5. A Tear in Space (Airlock)

6. I Can't Make You Fall in Love Again

7. How I Learned To Love The Bomb

8. White Roses

9. On the Run

10. Lost in the Ocean

Formed in 2010 in Oxford, England, Glass Animals is a renowned group consisting of members Dave Bayley, Drew MacFarlane, Edmund Irwin-Singer, and Joe Seaward. They released their debut album, Zaba, in 2014, putting them on the map with the single “Gooey,” which later became certified platinum. Continuing that success in 2020, Glass Animals released their hit single “Heat Waves” and third studio album, Dreamland, keeping the band at the top of the charts. Despite this success, frontman Dave Bayley found himself feeling more isolated than ever, battling with the strict protocols of COVID and self-isolation after becoming sick with the virus. This left the singer alone in a rented house in LA, looking down on the twinkling lights of the city and finding the inspiration for I Love You So F***ing Much. Shedding light on the story behind the recent album, Bayley shares on Apple Music, “I’d tried to make a space record before, but it came out too cold. It didn’t feel human or relatable enough. Being in that house literally put it in perspective. I looked out and saw all these people walking around, the families and people in the gas stations having an argument. You see these human relationships and how complex and important they are, and you realize how powerful those human interactions are. Those relationships and those feelings are much bigger than everything else. The little things right in front of you are actually more important.”

While the band’s previous album, Dreamland, saw the four-piece experimenting sonically and putting together eccentric soundscapes, I Love You So F***ing Much has Glass Animals returning to more of a commercial electropop feel. The album kicks off with the track “Show Pony,” delivering an upbeat and infectious song about idealizing love. “Show Pony” features a narrative about how we build up certain ideas of love when we’re growing up, developing a fairytale about what love should be before we even experience it. It’s surprising that it wasn’t released as a single ahead of the album as it’s one of the most addictive entries on I Love You So F***ing Much, showcasing Glass Animals’ best songwriting with memorable melodies, epic choruses, and unforgettable synth-laden instrumentals.

Next on the list, “whatthehellishappening?” follows “Show Pony” by outlining a situation where you’re being pulled along for an overwhelming ride but still find joy in the experience. The lyrics reflect on the complexity of the situation, feeling helpless while also feeling a thrill over not calling the shots. Accompanying the track’s narrative, “whatthehellishappening?” features a euphoric soundscape complete with spirited guitar riffs, vibrant synths, energetic melodies, and driving beats. “Creatures in Heaven” follows “whatthehellishappening,” showing everyone why it was the main teaser leading up to the album’s release. It’s love incarnate, featuring tender verses, rapturous choruses, and rich instrumentals that transport us to a state of ecstasy. The track was personal one for the band’s frontman with Bayley stating, “I was pushing myself to be tender and just lay it out as nakedly as possible. It’s meant to show that these tiny moments can completely change your life. It can be one second where you didn’t say something and you regret it for the rest of your life and it changes every decision you make in a similar context forever. It’s trying to say how fragile and vulnerable those moments are. It’s an emotional one. For me, it’s a very personal story, but I hope people can relate different instances of their own life to it.”  

Contrasting the uncontainable feelings of love in “Creatures in Heaven,” “Wonderful Nothing” comes next with an exploration into the complexity of hate. Bayley believes hate is a type of love, explaining that, “To hate someone you have to love them and to love someone means that you might hate parts of them. They’re strongly linked and strongly attached.” Reflecting the nature of the lyrics, the soundscape in “Wonderful Nothing” is much darker, sounding reminiscent of Glass Animals’ “Space Ghost Coast To Coast” from Dreamland. Being the other single preceding the release of I Love You So F***ing Much, “A Tear in Space (Airlock)” comes next with an interesting twist on modern pop. The track features a production technique used frequently in modern pop, using sidechain compression to give the song a feeling of the air being sucked out of it.

Being credited by Bayley as the rawest moment on the album, “I Can’t Make You Fall in Love Again” tackles tough feelings as the singer reflects on how you can’t make someone love you. The synth-laden track has a dark dance-pop feel to it, featuring pulsing beats and infectious melodies with a sad undertone reflecting the tragedy of the song’s narrative. “How I Learned To Love The Bomb” is deceptively light-hearted, weaving the tale of coming to terms with someone having a darker side to them that you’ve never seen before. There’s a complexity to the scenario as the song addresses how it’s simultaneously exciting and terrifying, thrilling in a way that’s dangerous.

Switching the perspective of “I Can’t Make You Fall in Love,” “White Roses” explores someone’s inability to change your feelings despite really wanting to. You want to make them happy and give them the world, but there’s a part of you that just doesn’t reciprocate their feelings. “On The Run” comes next, referencing Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The novel and radio show served as a large influence on I Love You So F***ing Much with Bayley finding inspiration in the soundtrack and using the equipment BBC Radio Workshop used to make the sound effects on the album. Concluding the album on a positive note, “Lost in the Ocean” gives us a friendly reminder to find the good in life, no matter how chaotic things might feel. Bayley states that “It’s the conclusion that we’ve come through all this. The spaceship has literally landed in the ocean. It’s a letter to myself in that way. It’s not necessarily about understanding everything that’s happened, it’s more just saying that it’s all chaos and that’s quite exciting. It’s a good thing to remember that these little things are there, and they’ll never go away. They’re always going to ground you and bring you back to earth in the end.”

Though the album has yet to make any headway on the charts, I Love You So F***ing Much has quite the track list to offer longtime Glass Animals fans or even those who are just casual listeners. It is a commercial and electropop daydream, delivering infectious hook after infectious hook and capturing us with addictive melodies. By the end of the album, we’re left wanting so much more and hoping that it won’t be another four years before we hear from the band again.

Written By Cheyenne Johnson

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