For: Glass Animals's I Love You So F--ing Much

I am so consistently impressed with glass animals. They have musically compelling songs, blending synthie elements with good drum lines and vocals. Their vocals are very distinctive, and I love them! Additionally, they write such good lyrics. They have the rare ability to place you into a scene where the melody works with the lyrics to add the emotional texture of the moment. I personally love their music.
This album explores love in all its diverse forms - with each song exploring a different aspect.

Favorites: all of them, but especially Show Pony, Tear in Space, How I Learned to Love the Bomb, On the Run.
FCCs = Show Pony, whatthehellishappening, Wonderful Nothing, On the Run

Song breakdown for the whole album
1. * FCC Show Pony (4:15) = Great lyrics, with very good tempo, and a very strong chorus. In the AP article above, Glass Animals says this is the table of contents for the rest of the album.
2. FCC whatthehellishappening (3:44) = Rolling drums and some synthieness, opens into a bigger chorus. Lyrics describe being taken over by falling in love. The end of the song is as if the trunk of the corolla from earlier in the song is shut and accelerates off - love takes control and shuts up our main character.
3. * Creatures in Heaven (3:41) = Slower than the last one. A reflection of the kind of innocent naivete of first love that has come and gone. The song has a coming and going quality in the melody and a good bounding base line. There is a strong element of nostalgia which masks the pain of the loss of that heavenly time.
4. FCC Wonderful Nothing (4:24) = A very slow start, with the normal glass animals vocal, with a drop into the song at around 1:00. The song feels like walking up into a fight, and the topic is more about those most combative boundary setting moments of loving someone else.
5. * A Tear in Space (Airlock) (3:23) = The song opens with a piano rif which offers the baseline. The drop at 1:26 is excellent! The song, in my estimation, is about being cast out of love into the vacuum of outside the relationship.
6. I Can't Make You Fall in Love Again (4:48) = Synthie keyboard/organ(?) kicks it off, while a horse-hoof drumbeat underlies the song pushing the pacing. After the chorus the song slows down a bit, before picking up. To me the song speaks to the painful loss of love a first love.
7. * How I Learned To Love The Bomb (4:09) = a very solid start with a good repetitive drum line. The lyrics are excellent. A bridge at 3:00 offers a brief departure, such that the last chorus hits extra hard. The song is reminiscent the kind of heart throbbing feeling that you get when you realize you have loved someone who has hid something for a long time.
8. White Roses (3:37) = the song kicks off with the chorus which provides an image which gets recontextualized by the song as it progresses. The song is about a love that could have been, but, it turns out, just doesn't fit. Around 3:00 the song takes time for a melodic solo, which helps put the curtain on the song.
9. * FCC On the Run (4:34) = Lyrics are a part of the melodic start. The song has a heartbroken quality to it - as if the main character is just surviving and not living after a breakup. Picks up at 1:10 for the repetitive on the run motif. Prior motifs are worked into the song as it continues the bridge at the end indicates a change of pace for the character.
10. Lost In The Ocean (4:06) = a song in the off balance waltz of 3/4. The lyrics almost provide a retrospective for the entire album and the emotional highs it addresses. It feels like the kind of wrung out fatigue after a long cry with a few moments of strong emotional clarity. Ending is soft.

Really, the whole album should have a star (*) for each song. They are each that good.

Alex Strong (08/24)