Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves” Lyrics Meaning

The main storyline of “Heat Waves” centers on the vocalist being unable to get over the departure of someone special to him. But the further reality of the situation is that such feelings are transpiring under less than ideal circumstances. Indeed, amongst the many explanations Dave Bayley has provided for this piece is the idea that we were all forced to harp on old relationships due to the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

In other words, since social mobility was woefully limited as a result, the option of going out and making new friends – or more specifically in this case lovers – was more or less taken away from the masses.

So with that in mind, what we’re more pointedly dealing with here is the vocalist seriously missing someone very close to him. And this is despite the fact that life has parted the two of them.  

Beyond that, Dave has also implied that the ultimate message of this song doesn’t have anything with the demise of a relationship per se. Rather, it is based on the notion of taking defeat like a man so to speak. He is basically accepting being “unable to save something”. In this particular instance, that something once again is a romantic relationship.

In Conclusion

All of that said, Bayley has also revealed that the title alludes to the concept of being so caught up in a relationship, that a person loses touch with him or herself. So putting all of the above together, what the lyrics boil down to is the singer indeed being in his feelings in relation to his ex-girlfriend. That’s a cold, hard, present reality which he cannot deny. But at the same time, he understands in his heart that he should not be feeling this way.

Summary: The singer constantly thinks about a loved one he is separated from. However, he ultimately accepts that being together with this person again will never happen.

Facts about “Heat Waves”

Colin Read directed the music video to this track, which was filmed in London. It is meant to be interpreted as a shoutout to “live music” culture. FYI, “live music” (at the time of the song’s release) has been usurped due to coronavirus-related policies.

“Heat Waves” was both written and produced by Glass Animals’ frontman Dave Bayley.

“Heat Waves” is a part of the band’s “Dreamland” album. It was released on 29th June, 2020 following the release of four other singles, including “Your Love (Déjà Vu)” and “Tokyo Drifting“.

Song’s Success

Almost a year after this track came out, it topped the US Billboard Alternative Streaming Songs list.  That was during the final full week of April, 2021. And in doing so it knocked the hip-hop track Mood by 24kGoldn out the top position. This was a song that had been number 1 on the chart throughout 2021 up until that point.

Indeed “Heat Waves” proved to be what some would refer to as a sleeper hit, the “ultimate” one even, according to BBC. For instance, even though some listeners, most notably Australians, recognized the song’s greatness early on, it didn’t make it onto the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart until 2021. It also took more than a full year for this song to break the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100.

“Heat Waves” eventually rose to hit number one in the United States. This feat happened in early 2022. The song was also a number 1 single in the below mentioned countries:

• Australia
• Czech Republic
• India
• Slovakia
• Switzerland

It has also achieved platinum status in the US, UK and Canada as of late 2021, in addition to having gone quintuple-platinum Down Under within that same time frame. Moreover, “Heat Waves” has topped Billboard’s Hot Rock & Alternative Songs listing, reached the top-10 on the UK Singles Chart and has thus far charted in nearly 30 countries.

The “Dreamland” Album

This track is from Dreamland, Glass Animals’ third studio album, which was released in mid-2020. Heat Waves was the fourth of five singles that were issued from this project.

The last album that Glass Animals dropped prior to this one was 2016’s How to Be a Human. As the story goes the band’s drummer, Joe Seaward, was in a very serious accident in 2018 that nearly cost him his life. And in an indirect sort of way, it was that incident that led to the creation of Dreamland.

Dreamland – which peaked within the top-5 on Glass Animals’ native UK Albums Chart, within the top-10 on the Billboard 200 and reached the summit of the US Top Rocks Albums list – managed to perform better than any other the band had ever put out even prior to Heat Waves suddenly blowing up. 

But to note, none of the other singles released from the project proved to really be notable hits, besides Tokyo Drifting (alongside Denzel Curry) going gold in Australia and Your Love (Déjà Vu) breaking the top 10 of the US Hot Rock & Alternative Songs list.