Daily Times

Glass Animals’ latest album was born thanks to a massive storm, a house on a cliff and an existential crisis. What emerged from that? A 10-track collection exploring love.

The indie-pop band’s frontman, songwriter and producer Dave Bayley found himself in an Airbnb house high on stilts below Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, alone, sick with fever and wondering about Glass Animals’ place in the universe.

Then came a powerful storm: Trees tumbling down the hill, roads flooded and his rented house perched precariously. “My existential crisis went to the next level,” Bayley says, laughing.

This cover image released by Republic Records shows “I Love You So F***ing Much” by Glass Animals. (Republic Records via AP)

But in the dazed calm that followed, Bayley saw people emerge from the storm and embrace – families, couples, friends, neighbors. “I felt like I was sitting in space in this house, looking down on the whole city.” A musical concept was born.

A few furious weeks of writing produced the 10-track “I Love You So F(asterisk)(asterisk)(asterisk)ing Much,” a follow-up to their third album, 2020’s “Dreamland,” which sold over 12 million copies. The new collection comes out July 19 via Republic Records.

There are songs about longing and ones about past relationships. One compares love to being hogtied and thrown into the trunk of a Corolla. “Each try to kind of touch on a different side of love,” Bayley says. “I love trying to build a whole world.”

The anthemic “Creatures in Heaven” is the first single, a memory of a tender, intimate moment. “You held me like my mother made me just for you/You held me so close that I broke in two.”