Glass Animals – ‘I Love You So F***ing Much’ album review: a gorgeous concept with lacklustre execution

Posted On July 18, 2024July 18, 2024

THE SKINNY: Not long ago, Glass Animals were making tunes that were ever so slightly more interesting than your average indie pop band. They pulled from psychedelic influences and R&B to create hits like the squeakily sublime ‘Gooey’ and the playful ‘Life Itself’, both of which had a certain charm that earned them a place on every indie teen’s summer playlist.

Ten years and one Tiktok sleeper hit later, those influences still remain in place. Glass Animals are still playing with psychedelia and R&B, but it no longer feels quite so fresh or fun. This is, unfortunately, true of their latest album, I Love You So F***ing Much, which marks their fourth full-length offering as Glass Animals.

I Love You So F***ing Much has a solid premise. Like their second album, How to Be a Human Being, the new record is based around a central concept. While the latter focused on the stories of different characters with each song, this new album focuses on a new depiction of love with each song. Along the way, songwriter Dave Bayley sets out to connect emotion with the universe and portray it as the largest thing within it.

It’s undoubtedly a gorgeous concept for an album, albeit an ambitious one. Taking on two concepts as big as love and space in one breath is a mammoth task, and unfortunately, one that I Love You So F***ing Much fails to do justice. The love stories and the instrumentation surrounding them often feel lacklustre, like the kind of song you’d skip while scrolling through Instagram Reels. 

There are moments of interest, intriguing metaphors, or glimpses at a Glass Animals of the past, but the album as a whole fails to build upon the genre that the band exist within. And particularly when so many pop artists are transforming the realm, it doesn’t quite cut it anymore.

For fans of: Lacklustre love songs.

A concluding comment from an avid reader: “Just read All About Love by bell hooks instead.” 

I Love You So F***ing Much track by track:

Release date: July 19th | Producer: Dave Bayley | Label: Polydor

‘Show Pony’: Our first portrait of love charts a relationship from start to finish in just a four-minute runtime. From sharing clothes to scars that run deep, Dave Bayley rushes through a romance over a forgettable beat, already stalling in his endeavours to capture the potency of love. [1/5]

‘whatthehellishappening’: There’s almost a Tame Impala-esque quality to the psychedelic strums that runs beneath ‘whatthehellishappening’, but it lacks the golden touch of Kevin Parker. “I’m so alive,” repeats Bayley, “I love this so much that I could cry,” but the track once again fails to match the passion in his words. [1.5/5]

‘Creatures in Heaven’: There’s nothing subtle about ‘Creatures in Heaven’. “Three in the morning making love,” Bayley begins, “Laid on the floor of your apartment.” It’s the kind of brazen specificity that can make love songs sing, but it doesn’t quite have that effect here. [1/5]

‘Wonderful Nothing’: The phrase ‘Wonderful Nothing’ feels like an apt way to sum up I Love You So F***ing Much. The concept is wonderful, but the execution feels nothing-y. The piece itself sounds primed for TikTok edits, with lipsync-worthy phrases and pounding bass moments. [1/5]

‘A Tear in Space’: There are glimpses at a younger version of Glass Animals in the spacey opening to ‘A Tear in Space’, but the band quickly reverts to more recent influences when Bayley’s vocals come in. [1/5]

‘ICMYFILA’: There are some shimmering strums on ‘ICMYFILA’, but they’re quickly buried under increasingly monotonous indie pop. For this love story, Bayley imagines an alternate future for a failed relationship, lamenting, “I can’t make you fall in love again, I can’t give you back your tenderness.” [1/5]

‘How I Learned To Love The Bomb’: Borrowing its title from a Stanley Kubrick classic, ‘How I Learned To Love The Bomb’ adopts the phrase to explore the experience of dealing with a two-sided romantic partner. It’s some of the most interesting and haunting lyricism on the album, as Bayley declares, “I don’t know when you’ll explode.” [1.5/5]

‘White Roses’: ‘White Roses’ is perhaps the closest Glass Animals come to recreating ‘Heat Waves’, with a pulsing beat and moments of release. It doesn’t build upon their previous single’s success, but it includes some lovely imagery. [1/5]

‘On the Run’: ‘On the Run’ flits between downtempo verses punctuated by Beach Boys-inspired vocalisations and sudden refrains of the title paired with much more frantic instrumentation. It’s a strange juxtaposition, one that doesn’t really pay off. [1.5/5]

‘Lost in the Ocean’: I Love You So F***ing Much comes to an end with ‘Lost in the Ocean’, which grapples with self-love. “I’ve had enough of today’s emotions, why can’t they just leave me alone?” Bayley sings. It’s still accompanied by fairly monotonous instrumentation, but it’s one of the sincerest feeling statements on the record. [1.5/5]

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