Glass Animals have followed a slow and steady path up the Billboard Hot 100 as “Heat Waves”, the 4th single off their 3rd album Dreamland, finally cracked the US top 10 after blowing up on Tik Tok. When it was first released back in June 2020 “Heat Waves” made about as big a wave as anyone expected, receiving generally positive critical and moderate commercial praise. But it quickly became a worldwide sleeper hit. In January 2021 the track became Glass Animals’ first to make it into the US Billboard Hot 100. Then, over the next 42 weeks, crept its way up to 10th position breaking the record for the longest climb to the top 10.
.@GlassAnimals‘ “Heat Waves” rises 13-10 on this week’s #Hot100.
It reaches the top 10 in its 42nd week. That’s the longest trip to the top 10 in the chart’s 63-year history.
— billboard charts (@billboardcharts) November 8, 2021
The record was previously held by American Idol winner Carrie Underwood and her Grammy winning single “Before He Cheats”. Underwood took a meagre 38 weeks to climb into the top 10 and peak in 8th position. 4 Weeks less than Glass Animals journey.
Meanwhile, the bands UK tour began in Glasgow last night. The tour will see them all over the UK with dates in Birmingham, London, Dublin and many others. See the full list of tour dates here.
While announcing the tour, the band also released a new single “I Don’t Wanna Talk (I Just Wanna Dance)”. Most of the viral success the band received from “Heat Waves” had clearly evaporated as the new single didn’t break the top 100 in the US or UK. The song has, however, been well received by fans along with it’s video directed by Drew Kirsch who co-directed Taylor Swift’s video for her single “Me”.
Upon releasing the single, frontman, Dave Bayley stated “The new single is intended to provide a musical release from the pressure cooker of a global pandemic”. The band also expressed the sensation of releasing new music during a pandemic as “overwhelming”. Bayley elaborated “That’s what this track is about – that pressure cooker exposing and expanding so many cracks, but struggling to fill them in and decompress”.
The bands slow and steady approach seems to be working well for them too, as “Heat Wave” also managed to land 5th position in the UK Singles Chart. While not quite as long winded as the climb in the US, it still took 35 consecutive weeks of climbing to finally make it. Dreamland is also, unsurprisingly, Glass Animals’ most commercially successful album debuting at number 2 upon the albums’ release in 2020.
