Hi everyone. I come to you with an incredibly long post of me ferally fangirling. Brace yourselves.
If you read my summer recap playlist, you noticed that I talked about a record of FOUR songs from one band, Glass Animals.
Well, I’ve been going back and forth on if I should do a New Music Crush post about them because I have fallen in love with their discography. However, they have so beautifully taken the title of the “artists behind my album of my year” and I’d like to contextualize the evolution of my relationship to them as I give them their flowers. (You’ll get a little taste of my history with them here though.)
But I remain here, plagued with intense feelings of adoration that I don’t know what to do with. So now, this is my incredibly freeform space to rhapsodize about the mastermind behind the band, the one and only Dave Bayley.
Now, Dave Bayley is probably the most fascinating man I’ve learned about in a while. And I can just tell he’d blush at me saying that with my whole chest. Dave, if you somehow end up reading this, YOU ARE A COOL HUMAN BEING. AND I PERSONALLY WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT. PLEASE EXCUSE MY FERAL FANGIRLING. There are many things that contribute to my conviction and I want to lay them all out, your honor.
Now — you all should know by now that it is homeostasis for me to have a profound crush on a rockstar. I literally have a two-part post about my love for rockstars that I have been sitting on for years…I should really put that in my posting queue. (But for proof in the meantime see: what Joe Jonas and Christo Bowman of Bad Suns mean to me.) It is literally weird for me to not be in love with a new one every so often. So in that way, it’s business as usual.
But my love for Dave is layered, complex, incredibly intense for its own good even – just like a Glass Animals song lol. So here are my reasons.
An American Born Brit
According to my research (aka all the interviews I’ve watched of him and deep internet searches I’ve done in the last three weeks), Dave was born in Massachusetts to a Jewish mother and a Welsh/Irish father. His parents were both scientists and they moved the family to Texas when Dave was a kid. He spent his childhood in Texas until his parents moved the family to Oxford, England when he was like 12. It was there that he “hit reset” on his wild ass accent (according to him lol) and “went full Hugh Grant”.
So, let’s pause. He has roots in America so he knows the secret of Americans being cool by just growing up here. AND THEN he knows the cool sides of the UK by living his formative years there. According to my calculations, it sounds like he takes the best of both places and is just cool on both sides of the pond.
Now, I guess I say this because I was born and raised in the States, Los Angeles to be exact. As a kid, I looked at the UK as the coolest place ever. ESPECIALLY when I was a Beatles-obsessed teenager. After visiting London for the first time in June, it lived up to the hype for me. So much so that I would LOVE to live there for a bit and help make some music shenanigans happen. However, after talking to some people there (including a friend who has lived there for 20 years), they think that the US is actually where it’s all at.
This leads me to understand that Dave is pretty unfazed by the across the pond debate. He seems to exist in this in-between space where he sees the good and bad of each place and focuses on the best of both worlds. An American/British Hannah Montana if you will lol. So that’s the foundation here.
I Love When He Pronounces Things Like That
That bleeds into my second reason why I am captivated by David: his singing cadence. An interesting phenomenon among British bands is the decision to sing with English accents or try to sing with American accents. What accent does Dave Bayley sing in? Honestly, it sounds like both and neither. It’s like he creates his own mix of the two. And I’m obsessed with it.
He has this almost Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy approach where his diction can be a little unclear, but it’s still always a vibe. There was an interview I saw where he said it may be a subconscious choice to maintain a sort of “guardedness” behind it. I think it does add to the mystery of the band and their unconventional approach to stand at the crossroads of a lot of genres and ideas.
There are several songs where I’ve had no idea what he’s said and it wasn’t until I actually looked up the lyrics that I realized what he was saying. And I wouldn’t have thought there was as much depth to it. It just sounded so cool.
For example, in the last verse of “Space Ghost Coast to Coast”, he says “cut into the back of your bedroom door frame”. I literally had been bopping along to that song for years not knowing what he said. Even though I can’t remember what I thought he said before, there is no way I thought he could have been saying that lol. But yeah, it doesn’t work as well as it does if you say that phrase with a normal, boring American accent. There’s such a cool cadence he achieves by rushing the pronunciation of the word “bedroom” like “be-droom”.
It just brings me so much joy to hear how he wraps his mouth around words and how he crafts melodies by throwing out the rules. He’s really a master at breaking down the sound of words for a musical effect. There’s something just so linguistically addicting about it to me.
His MIND
On that note, let’s dive into this man’s mind. I’d argue it may be the sexiest thing about him.
First of all, this man was studying neuroscience before he decided to make music full-time. So…ok Dave, pop off science king.
Now second of all, the most relevant ways we can dive into his mind are to examine his lyrics, songwriting, and production skills. Spoiler alert: Dave Bayley is a fucking genius.
So let me start by talking Glass Animals lyrics. As I’ve gone back and listened to their discography, there’s definitely been an evolution lyrically. In a lot of the early songs, the lyrics are kind of nonsensical. (Some of my favorite nonsensical lyrics include “my girl eats mayonnaise from a jar while she’s getting blazed” and “People standing in line to buy whatever the McFuck” lol) I’ve come to realize that Dave likes choosing words and phrases for how he can make them sound and the pictures they can paint. They’re sometimes surreal, but there’s definitely always a story to unpack.
As Dave has eased into telling more personal stories in consequent albums (from the last song of their second album on), he’s landed in this really fun territory that a lot of my favorite songwriters live in: the use of very weird and specific metaphors/scenarios to communicate a very universal feeling. Dave’s lyrics have become kinda like sleeper agents — one second you’re grooving to the beat of the song, in awe of his choice to pronounce words a certain way. And then all of a sudden it clicks what he is trying to say and it blows your mind because of how complex the meaning is.
Similarly, he’s so strategically fluid about rules from a songwriting perspective. He’s mentioned before that he likes slightly changing up the melody of the second verse. It works to emphasize the point of a song or to call out a different angle. One big thing I’ve been SUPER inspired to hear is that he starts writing songs on his trusty, old thrifted guitar…which is what I have been doing since I started writing my own songs when I was 14. He’s said before that if the song’s good on his guitar then usually it’s good when the production comes together.
On that note, the first thing about Dave that I found attractive were his production skills. I mean it’s where my creative crush on him started. I remember listening to the Dreamland album in 2020 just in awe of the production choices. It was probably the first time production really really stood out to me and it became this sort of musical aspiration for me. Dave’s such a master at arranging sounds and making the most random things sound interesting and purposeful. Sonically, he’s been inspired by folks like The Strokes, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Missy Elliot, Dr. Dre, and Timbaland. Which like — that random of a list of musical influences feels like it shouldn’t work. But IT DOES.
He clearly knows a thing or two about production but he’s been a very big inspiration to me for the way he’s been able to demystify the production process. Learning from him has 1) motivated me to keep learning 2) made me feel like producing music is SO more approachable than I previously thought and 3) showed me that it’s all about finding joy in it as I’ve been working on my first music project. Dave is my favorite music producer and if I could end up being like 1/16th the producer that he is, I’d be so happy.
The best way for me to discuss how Dave’s lyrics, songwriting, and production come together in a triple-action ray gun kind of way is by unpacking one of my favorites in depth.
The song “Your Love (Déjà Vu)” from the Dreamland album is such a genius song on so many levels. Firstly, the lyrics talk about a toxic relationship that you just can’t let go of. They paint such a vivid picture of the toxicity and the desperation that being in a cycle of it produces. Secondly, I love the way he punctuates the bridge with the instrumental breakdown. He does a great job of creating space to drive the point he’s trying to make. Thirdly, Dave’s vocal choices are so strategic. He goes from a delicate and breathy sound in the verses to an almost ravenous climax in the bridge as he says “I want you to eat me alive” (which like sheeesh back at ya). Lastly, the production here is just the very definition of ear candy to me. There’s so many layers and textures and cool percussive hits and little melodies that catch your ear. It’s as if it’s painting a contrast to the cognitive dissonance in the lyrics. To me, this song serves as a sign that Dave graduated from the Timbaland school of sick beats, magna cum laude.
The result is this addictive song that just draws out the longing, the restlessness, the euphoria, the desperation, the resignation of wanting to be loved by someone that just can’t give you what you need. And David, don’t I know those feelings all too well. You insane genius you.
And that’s the thing — every Glass Animals song could be unpacked masters level dissertation-style on its lyrics, songwriting, production, and how it fits into the context of whatever album it comes from. But it’s perfectly fine just to bop along mindlessly to, too.
Introverts Are Hot (Because They Can Surprise You)
Dave is a shy, wholesome man by many accounts, including himself (just see how he reacts to my fave Arlo Parks telling him that Glass Animals’ second album was one of the albums that inspired her to release music – it is so cute). My friend Angie who’s been a longtime fan of the band described him as “the biggest cutie patootie”. And as a fellow cutie patootie myself, I love to hear that my newest favorite rockstar meets me there. He loves making pancakes and eating cereal, hanging out with his adorable dog Woody (see above), and making music in his studio. In interviews, he comes across as funny, humble, thoughtful, and just such a sweet man. You can tell he loves his introverted activities and definitely seems like he prioritizes staying grounded as a human being. So that said, you might be surprised to know that this same man is one of the most captivating performers I’ve seen.
I witnessed this firsthand when I saw Glass Animals live last month on their “Tour of Earth” and I quickly went from “wow he’s so talented” to “sir…your existence is making my entire existence quake right now and I do not know how nor if I want to recover”.
It was so clear how he was taking in the moment and switching between “I can’t believe this is happening right now” and “I’m going to give this crowd every single ounce of my being right now”. I find it electrifying to see him be somehow so humbly human and larger than life at the same time. If you’re outside of the US, you might be able to catch them at a show near you! I highly recommend. But I can’t be held responsible if you too become down bad for Dave Bayley.
I think the thing that just really gets me about this seemingly dichotomous existence he lives is how he makes it work. Like, I know it’s possible for introverts to come out of their shell with certain things…but for him to so fearlessly emphasize his depth as a songwriter/human being and still commit to putting on the best show you’ll see feels so so so special. He also doesn’t seem to take himself too seriously, which I think makes him able to be so animated on stage and so humble and thoughtful in smaller settings. As an extrovert who seeks out people with a certain depth, range, and substance, swoooooon. Also maybe not necessary but I’m gonna say it anyway, he is an attractive man — like I’ve been spending way too much time just looking at him like “damn, that’s a beautiful man”. And his sense of style? Impeccable. You’re ticking off my boxes Dave, I’ll tell you that.
Own The Awkwardness and You Become Cool AS FUCK
Now on that note, here’s where Dave puts to shame all the men I’ve ever dated/been romantically interested in. He is the poster child for “lean into your awkwardness and you become the coolest fucking person in the room”. And y’all it makes me WEAK IN THE KNEES.
Dave, with his self-deprecating, classic British wit, talks about his neuroticism often — to the point where you can see him kind of struggling with the concept of accepting that he really is a fucking rockstar. Glass Animals fans find it endearing, normies are probably like ‘well at least he’s self-aware’, and I feel both inspired and completely seen in it.
His way of classically “faking it til you make it” is by just having fun doing it all.
The song “Tokyo Drifting” is arguably the most fun song in the Glass Animals discography because it highlights Dave leaning into this side of himself. In the song, he puts on his ‘Sasha Fierce’-esque persona of “Wavey Davey” aka whoever he channels while performing onstage. While you might feel his awkwardness at first listen, he sells the shit out of that song as it builds. AND IT BECOMES SO COOL. I feel like this song is Dave really showing off his versatility as a producer, singer, and songwriter. He’s said before that he’d been a big fan of Denzel Curry and wanted to make something they could collaborate on. The result is this exhilarating bop that invites even the nerdiest of people to realize that they’ve always been super cool and can access their coolness whenever they want by channeling their own “Wavey Davey”. This song just begs me to let loose and be and I feel like that’s so much of what I’ve really loved and been learning from Dave through his artistry.
Conclusion
To summarize this incredibly long rhapsody, I am so in love with the way Dave Bayley doesn’t shy away from the messiness of the human experience and uses his music to process it all. I’ve spent too much of my life feeling like I have to hide my mess and as I’ve gotten older, I can’t help but feel like I just don’t care to hide myself anymore. Because actually, people relate to my mess more than my polish.
Whether it’s releasing my music in the world or choosing a less traditional path in my career, I feel like I’ve been in a place where I’m actually ok with the fact that I will never have it all together. And the fun of it is actually sharing the mess with others.
There’s a certain genius in how Dave Bayley manages the tension between mess and polish in his music and artistry. And I just look up to it. He has this groundedness to him that makes you forget he is behind one of the biggest songs of the decade. If anything, that groundedness is more aspirational to me than the crazy records he’s set.
Anyway, the defense rests your honor. If I were in charge of People Magazine I would be declaring dear Dave the sexiest man of the year for 2024. Alas I do not have that power. But I can at least publicly thank him for making me realize that there are WAY more extraordinary men in the world than my ex from a year ago. (Dave, he will never be as cool as you.)
What follows are my current favorite Glass Animals songs, excluding those on I Love You So F***ing Much because I will be unpacking that album at the end of the year. Again, Dave, if you read this somehow, I love YOU so fucking much, thanks for sharing your music with the world. If we ever cross paths in real life, I will do my best to be super cool and regular. Tell your mom that you’re an honorary doctor in my book for the ways your music heals out here.
Highlights
Black Mambo
“Slow down it’s a science…”
This song is delicious. It’s a vibe, it’s sexy, it’s slinky. And I honestly don’t know what Dave is singing about but my default when his voice sounds this good is “whatever you say handsome”. The little vibraphone sounding instrument melody is so good; it’s such an earworm. Every time I listen to Glass Animals’s first album, ZABA, I can’t get the picture of shy, young Dave singing these words nervously into a microphone out of my mind. And then the result of that being this intriguing, tasty little song. Like why is he pronouncing “sloth” with an emphasized “oh” sound? And more importantly, why am I so obsessed with it? Incredible work.
Gooey
“You just wanna know those peanut butter vibes…”
God, this song is sexy. It’s a classic Glass Animals addicting beat and it makes total sense to me why this song was the first of theirs to pop off. I’ve been so surprised to know my friends knew this song when we were in college and thought it was a vibe and a half. To me, Dave plays this almost seductive narrator in this song. His vocals in this song are so intimate and breathy and it really shows off the range of his vocal register. One of my favorite lyrics in this song is the part where he says “I take your gloom, I curl it up and puff it into plumes”. Which is exactly what he and his genius music do. Also I will never forgive him for the guitar solo he did on tour during this song. That was the exact moment I fell in love with him to the point of literally writing like 4,000 words about this man. Anyway, TLDR; it’s a bewitching song. He’s a sexy genius of a man for this song specifically.
Hazey
“Come back, baby, don’t you cry…”
This song is what I imagine a rainforest to sound like. There’s a little synth that sounds like raindrops and it’s such a hypnotizing element in the song. Again, no idea what he’s talking about but what a vibe man. ZABA really feels like Glass Animals’ foundational approach to music because of the way the soundscapes are so lush and captivating. The lyric I’m obsessed with purely because of how he pronounces it is “I’m fuckin loco, I can’t get through to you”. I don’t know what possessed Dave to write that line, let alone sing it like that, but I’m obsessed.
Cocoa Hooves II
“You know the way that I hide…”
Dave has no business writing this sexy of a song. But actually thank you for going there. No I don’t know what he’s talking about here but say it with me: “whatever you say handsome!!!” I think it’s a fair assessment to say that the whole first chapter of Glass Animals’s existence is about the vibe. This song definitely teeters in electronic/ambient territory for me, which I don’t normally listen to much. But like I said, it’s a vibe.
Youth
“Boy, I want you to be happy, free to run, get dizzy on caffeine…”
This song is somehow euphoric and sad at the same time. The percussion in this song is so dynamic and the synths are so beautifully playful. It really is the sound of youthfulness. The second Glass Animals album, How To Be a Human Being, is really about introducing a more human element into the vibes Dave crafted in ZABA. I love how this album was influenced by different people they met while on tour. It’s just such a great concept of an album. This song has been striking a personal chord with me though. It’s one of many Glass Animals songs helping me let go of my past year’s heartbreak. I remember hearing this song live and just feeling how it was so smartly sandwiched between “Creatures in Heaven” and “Lost in the Ocean” (I’ll talk about those later). It’s as if Dave had made this space for me to send my well-wishes to that ex that made me feel like it was ok to be messy and human for once. This song really does invite me to embrace my youth and it’s just so beautiful.
Pork Soda
“Why don’t I say it then? I want you all the time…”
This was actually the first Glass Animals song I ever heard. A friend in college told me about them and I remember listening to it like “this is catchy but what the hell is he talking about? What is pork soda? Do I wanna know what that is? What’s the deal with the pineapples?” Lowkey, I still don’t have exact answers to those questions. But it doesn’t matter! This song is fun as fuck and from what I do gather from the lyrics and the video, it’s about a fizzling relationship. Which, leave it to Dave to take this fun of a song to be a little messy. Also it’s the song where pineapples really became a Glass Animals thing. Dave said in interviews that he heard a homeless man say “pineapples are in my head” and he couldn’t stop thinking about it…so he put it in a song. His mind sounds like such a fascinating place. It really strikes my curiosity to know how he thinks about things.
Take A Slice
“I’m the treasure, baby, I’m the prize…”
This song is kind of nonsense lyrically. But it’s sexy nonsense and I can’t really explain why so just read the lyrics on Genius.com lol. The production is so fun and a masterclass in proper distortion. Also when I say that I love how Dave pronounces words, this song is Exhibit A. Specifically, I’m obsessed with how he says “shitty old pistola” and “gonna go to Pensacola”…the way he says it has me just repeating these lyrics like Bloo in Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends repeating “it’s hot in Topeka”. He does such a good job of putting on this sleazy character and it’s so fun to see them play this song live. Because this is pure Wavey Davey on his bullshit. I’m sorry but there’s nothing hotter than Dave singing “I’m filthy and I love it” and then proceeding to do the guitar solo live. A complete nail in my coffin.
Dreamland
“Make it feel like that song that just unopened you…”
The title track of their third album is just an insane level of genius to me. It’s so vivid lyrically and hypnotizing sonically. He said in interviews that it serves the purpose as a table of contents for the Dreamland album. I’m truly enchanted every time I listen to it. That little melody feels so nostalgic and I love it. Honestly, this album is one of my favorite albums of all time, so I should probably do a post unpacking this album as a whole. But then again I’ve already explained like half the album here oops.
Tangerine
“You only look at me properly now when you’re drunk watching movies…”
Tangerine was the first Glass Animals song I really fixated on. I remember riding around LA at the height of the pandemic just bopping along to this song trying to assuage my anxiety about literally everything. To this day, it still brings a weird sense of comfort even though it somehow balances yearning and angst in its emotional content. I don’t know how he did it but yeah, it’s so fun and clever.
Hot Sugar
“I wish that we could be real too…”
This is probably my favorite Glass Animals song right now. I love the groove, I love the production, and I’m obsessed with the way Dave emphasizes the end of different words. It’s like he lets the words hang on his tongue a little too long. This song is so sexy in a very disappointed way. What I mean by that is that Dave’s definitely painting a fun picture of a relationship in a summery, carefree way sonically. But it’s through the lyrics that he knows it’s not gonna work. Which like, that describes my love life for the last year and a half lol. A sexy and addicting song that is definitely giving “truth hurts babe”.
Waterfalls Coming Out of Your Mouth
“You fake your shyness, I just wish that I could see through you…”
Dave is so unhinged on this song (see the lyrics “I’m going to read your mind. Big dicks and big ol’ titties on the sly”). And I love it lol. It’s one of those songs where you kind of stop and wonder what the hell is he on about. But once you realize he’s calling himself out for hiding his real self in a relationship? Genius. Like I’m so glad he had the audacity to write this song. This is also one of those songs where I’m just amazed by the way he pronounces things. Like just the entire thing. Also the fact that he just wrote the guitar part just like by casually fucking around? He’s a gorgeous and talented genius. You know what I love most in this song though? The way he comes out with a striking anger as he singing “CLAP CLAP YOU’RE A CLEVER CLEVER COOKIE NOW”. Unhinged Dave is my favorite Dave. And I can’t stop listening to anything he ever does.
SOUNDS LIKE FEELS LIKE 
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