“Heat Waves” is the third single from the British band Glass Animals, which was released in 2020. The song enjoyed crazy popularity, both in Foggy Albion and far beyond its borders. Let’s try to figure out what this song is about and why everyone liked it so much.
History of the song
Despite the sentimental tone, this song has a very sad story. In an interview, the band’s vocalist Dave Bailey said that he first wrote the chords, and then, literally in one day, wrote the lyrics, which were in perfect harmony with the melody. The song itself is dedicated to the deceased friend of the guitarist, whose birthday was celebrated in June. The band’s frontman repeatedly recalls that for him this song is about loss and the longing that remains after them. For him, the composition is saturated with nostalgia and the understanding of the fact that nothing can be changed.
It is noteworthy that the song was released during the peak of the bans associated with the COVID-19 epidemic. For many, the composition has become an unofficial anthem that symbolizes prohibitions within the country and within their own thoughts.
Meaning of “Heat Waves” – Glass Animals
Having dealt with the history of the creation of the composition, it will be easier for us to understand what the author put into the lines that everyone loved:
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been fakin’ me out
Can’t make you happier now
Sometimes, all I think about is you
Late nights in the middle of June
Heat waves been fakin’ me out
Can’t make you happier now
The song plunges us into a nostalgic, melancholic mood, forcing us to remember our happy moments that will forever remain in the past. Knowing the history of writing the text, it is difficult to draw analogies with love, but looking from the outside, the song is perceived precisely as a ballad about unrequited or lost love. The lines are saturated with warm nostalgia for bygone times, spent next to a person who understood you.
The author keeps returning to the idea that the prospective interlocutor deserves a better life and conditions, that only then life can turn out differently. Summing up, the vocalist sings that he will never be able to give it, which means that the roads are destined to part. The singer says that when he makes such a decision, he feels mental pain, but this is the only right decision that he must make, although he does not want to be alone.
Song Popularity
The song made a splash in the midst of quarantine restrictions. People locked in their apartments and deprived of the opportunity to move freely, to see relatives and friends, heard their own pain and depression between the lines. That is why, according to the vocalist, the composition has become the most successful for the entire existence of the group.
The first notable success was the top positions in the Australian music chat Triple J Hottest 100 of 2020, which has not happened to English groups for ten years. Interestingly, for two years since the release, the track continues to take places in international song chats. The musicians admit that they did not expect such a resounding success from a simple song written on the knee in a couple of days.
Music video for the song
Of no less interest is the video for the musical composition. It was also filmed in 2020 by Colin Reed in an area of London. Filming was complicated by the fact that it took place during the period of covid restrictions, which limited the work of the film crew. The video features frontman Dave Bailey. He pulls a cart with TVs through the streets of morning London, and the neighbors film everything that happened from the windows on the phones. An interesting fact is that the recordings made by the neighbors were indeed used in the final editing of the video.
With the naked eye, we see the symbolism that takes us to the lines of the song’s lyrics and the story the guy is telling us from the screen:
Usually, I put somethin’ on TV
So we never think about you and me
But today, I see our reflections clearly
In Hollywood, layin’ on the screen
You just need a better life than this
You need somethin’ I can never give
Fake water all across the road
It’s gone now, the night has come, but
In the finale, he brings televisions to the stage of the concert hall, turns them on (showing other members of the group on the screens) and performs in front of an absolutely empty hall. The scene is final and we see a concert at which not a single spectator is present. A celebration of life to which no one came or could not come. A topical and topical topic hits the sick, making you remember the many concerts that were canceled or transferred online for the safety of the audience.
Go through life with a song when everything that warmed your heart is in the past. This is how a simple love song can acquire a philosophical meaning and demonstrate the imprint of the harsh reality that circumstances impose on the fate of ordinary people.
“This video is a love letter to live music, the culture of concerts and festivals, and this sense of total community. It was filmed in the midst of a lockdown in my area, in East London, not only by me, but by all the neighbors who wanted to join the filming process, then transferring video from their phones. All these people, like you and me, usually do not sit at home. Everyone spends their leisure time at performances, galleries, cinemas, etc. All these sites are empty today, and some of them will not survive at all. A song about loss and longing, when, in the end, you realize that something is beyond your power to save. Huge gratitude and love to all who became a part of it. As everyone peered out of their windows and doors, I felt that sense of togetherness and tingling energy that live performances are filled with, which made the ending with the concert in an empty room with the band stuck in the monitor screens even more heartbreaking.” – said the band’s frontman Dave Bayley (Dave Bayley) about the filming of the video.
