#11 on the 2020 Bacon Top 31 — Glass Animals

Dreamland by Glass Animals

I’m writing this review on the night of President Biden and Vice President Harris’s inauguration, and hooooo boy it’s amazing the difference a day can make. It would be foolish to think that all our troubles are behind us now that the 46th president has been sworn in, but it sure has been nice to feel that way just for an instant. There’s a long road ahead, but it feels so good to have a president that has already shown he has a plan and is headed in the right direction.

It couldn’t be more fitting a night to write about Glass Animals, whose fantastic third full-length album Dreamland is just barely missing the top 10 of 2020. This album is fun, bouncy, and instantly lovable. These songs evoke a sound of treacly throwback, to bands like Passion Pit or Suckers, with electronic-driven beats underneath higher-register male vocals.

After you first listen, and then repeat, and repeat again because you just can’t stop yourself, you start to hear the words to the songs. It’s only then that you start to realize the topics being sung about are deeply personal, often dark life stories. Dave Bayley, the band’s principal song writer, said this about the album:

The idea of Dreamland is to go from my first memory up until now, through all the big realizations that happen in life. It's about the things that happened and the people that surrounded me in that time, good things, bad things, horrific things, funny things, confusing things, bits where I hated myself, bits where I hated other people, first loves, discovering sexuality, sadness, abandonment, mental health. It's just painting pictures of those moments and times that, looking back, make you who you are.

Bayley, from Oxford, England, not only wrote the songs, but he also sang and produced all the songs on Dreamland, with a touch of help from his Oxford childhood friends and bandmates Drew MacFarlane (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals), Ed Irwin-Singer (bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals) and Joe Seaward (drums, percussion). The band (or maybe just Bayley himself?) even put together a full video set for the album. Not just lyric videos, like most bands these days, but a short form video has been created for each song on the album. On top of that, the band’s website (glassanimals.com) is creatively genius. I don’t want to give it away — just click that link and look for yourself.

Then go buy the record and listen. I won’t be surprised when it doesn’t leave your speakers for days.

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1. Saint Cloud by Waxahatchee
2. Fetch The Bolt Cutters by Fiona Apple
3. Punisher by Phoebe Bridgers
4. folklore + evermore by Taylor Swift
5. Untitled (Black Is) + Untitled (Rise) by Sault
6. RTJ4 by Run The Jewels
7. Shore by Fleet Foxes
8. Serpentine Prison by Matt Berninger
9. The Ascension by Sufjan Stevens
10. Making a Door Less Open by Car Seat Headrest
11. Dreamland by Glass Animals
12. A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.
13. Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez by Gorillaz
14. Mordechai + Texas Sun EP by Khruangbin
15. Introduction, Presence by Nation of Language
16. Free Love by Sylvan Esso
17. Miss Anthropocene by Grimes
18. 3.15.20 by Childish Gambino
19. Women In Music Pt. III by HAIM
20. The Third Mind by The Third Mind
21. Superstar by Caroline Rose
22. Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver
23. We Will Always Love You by The Avalanches
24. Ultra Mono by IDLES
25. Visions of Bodies Being Burned by clipping.
26. Thin Mind by Wolf Parade
27. The Loves of Your Life by Hamilton Leithauser
28. Palo Alto (Live) by Thelonious Monk
29. color theory by Soccer Mommy
30. Fall to Pieces by Tricky
31. Quarantine Casanova by Chromeo

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#3 on the 2012 Musical Bacon Calendar

Gossamer by Passion Pit

I’ve been on the Passion Pit bandwagon for many years now. Their debut album “Manners” was #1 on the inaugural Musical Bacon Calendar (then called the “Musical Advent Calendar”), because that album defined 2009 for me. After spending most of 2010 and 2011 touring on the heels of that album, I had my doubts that the band was going to be able to come out of the recording studio with something awesome.

After all, a lot had changed since the release of that first EP and consequent album. Lead singer/songwriter Michael Angelakos tore his vocal chords to shreds while singing his high-powered falsetto day in and day out during the grueling touring schedule. He suffered from huge amounts of self-induced pressure in trying to capture his former greatness on the new record. He’s bipolar, according to this article from The Guardian earlier this year, which apparently resulted in a long drunken haze when the writer’s block was at its worst.

But when he pulled it all together, he had created “I’ll Be Alright,” the awesome song heard in the video above. And then the rest of the Gossamer fell in line. I think a lot of people, including myself, had written the band off as a one-hit wonder, or at least a one-album wonder. So when this album came out, I think “cautious optimism” would probably be too strong a statement for what I approached the album with. I was damn near reluctant to listen to it, for fear it would blow up my high opinion of the band.

And it wasn’t an immediate love. Other than “I’ll Be Alright,” which was mind blowing the first time I heard it, the rest of the album needed time to plant itself in my brain before I liked it. Once it found purchase, it began to grow in presence, taking over all of my available listening time. There was an eventual period late in the summer where I listened to nothing but this album.

If you’ve liked Passion Pit in the past, pick up Gossamer. If you’ve not heard Passion Pit before, don’t start with this album. Look for Manners. It is and will always be the best album this band has produced. But Gossamer sure gave it a run for its money, and went a long way in proving that they aren’t just a flash in the pan. Check it out the next chance you get.

(There’s also a nice little iPhone app you can download, featuring a couple songs from the album in a new and interactive way. Pick it up here.)

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4. Lion’s Roar by First Aid Kit
5. Maraqopa by Damien Jurado
6. Shallow Bed by Dry The River
7. Valtari by Sigur Rós
8. The Heist by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis
9. Heaven by The Walkmen
10. State Hospital EP by Frightened Rabbit
11. A Thing Called Divine Fits by Divine Fits
12. Some Nights by fun.
13. Tramp by Sharon van Etten
14. Fear Fun by Father John Misty
15. Love This Giant by David Byrne and St. Vincent
16. To The Treetops! by Team Me
17. The Master: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Jonny Greenwood
18. There’s No Leaving Now by The Tallest Man On Earth
19. Transcendental Youth by The Mountain Goats
20. A Church That Fits Our Needs by Lost In The Trees
21. Hospitality by Hospitality
22. Free Dimensional by Diamond Rings
23. History Speaks by Deep Sea Diver
24. A Different Ship by Here We Go Magic
25. Negotiations by the Helio Sequence
26. Moms by Menomena
27. The Sound of the Life of the Mind by Ben Folds Five
28. Shields by Grizzly Bear
29. Every Child A Daughter, Every Moon A Sun by The Wooden Sky
30. Fragrant World by Yeasayer
31. Reign of Terror by Sleigh Bells

What is the Bacon Calendar?

2011 Musical Bacon Calendar
2010 Musical Bacon Calendar
2009 Musical Bacon Calendar

Take the best parts of Passion Pit, Tilly and the Wall and Mates of State and you end up with Norway‘s Team Me, at least that’s what it seems like from the only song I’ve heard of theirs, “With My Hands Covering Both of My Eyes I Am Too Scared to Have A Look At You Now.”

Great song. Pretty crazy video, too.