★★★★★
When Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley says he's into cerebral music, he means it. The Oxford native has a degree in neuroscience from London's King's College. But Bayley, who cites trip-hop acts like Flying Lotus and Madlib as influences, is no snob when it comes to crafting heady, intricate beats and smooth R&B grooves.
Initially a bedroom project, Glass Animals grew into a quartet after Bayley brought three of his childhood friends onboard...
- www.pastemagazine.com
2014-06-12
★★★★★
Friday evening at The Great Escape, and several hundred of us are crammed in to a damn-near molten Coalition down on Brighton's seafront to watch . Most of us are here because of 'Gooey', at the time rotating dizzily on 6music's playlist, or just attracted like flies to the buzz around the Oxford four-piece, but a few - a few are rather more fervent. 'I fucking love you!' yells a young woman who's apparently flown in from Canada for this gig: 'No, really - I really love you...
- www.drownedinsound.com
2014-06-10
★★★★★
Glass Animals' full-length debut sounds just as its single, "Gooey," suggests. ZABA's syrupy melodies reel you in, get your blood pumping and craving more, but it's the lyrical innuendo that sticks to you and won't let go. The album--heavily laden with tribal-meets-R & B percussion that carries ZABA from start to finish--thrives thanks in part to the inclusion of vocalist Dave Bayley's falsetto oozing all over its 12 tracks, spreading visceral desire wherever it lands...
- filtermagazine.com
2014-06-10
★★★★★
Oxford's maverick noiseniks Glass Animals, touted by master chart-puppeteer Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Adele, Florence + The Machine and many more), unloaded clip upon clip of awesome right to our temple last year. They presented us with a genuinely unique premise, stuffed with the warped tie-dye drones of psychedelia, the sultry slither of noir&B, a dash of soul, a jigger of synthpop and elements of grandiose baroque-rock, trip-hop and '90s pop...
- www.thelineofbestfit.com
2014-06-10
★★★★★
For the last couple of years, Oxford-via-London quartet Glass Animals has wooed listeners with a steady stream of singles and remixes. "Psylla" and "Black Mambo" exhibited a sound somewhere between the dark, enveloping trip-hop of Massive Attack and weirdo groove-makers Alt-J. "Gooey" came along later, and rolled a scintillating R&B vibe into the musical compound; it was like a raunchy Miguel cut, but way too heady and British to fall far outside Radiohead's spectrum of influence...
- www.undertheradarmag.com
2014-06-09
★★★★★
Oxford four-piece Glass Animals are signed to super-producer Paul Epworth's new label Wolf Tone - which, given his talent-spotting track record with Adele and Florence + The Machine, says something for their commercial appeal, sitting as they do directly between Alt-J, Wild Beasts and 'In Rainbows'-era Radiohead. That singer Dave Bayley is a qualified doctor perhaps explains their brainiac aesthetic, all intricate beats and time signatures, but their songs have heart to go with the giant brain...
- www.nme.com
2014-06-09
★★★★★
With their impeccable reference points (the xx, the Weeknd) and cryptic song titles (Intruxx, Wyrd), Oxford's Glass Animals are, at least on paper, an enticing proposition. But their debut album, the first full-length release on super-producer Paul Epworth's label, is too clinical to truly convince. Though tracks such as Flip and Pools are undeniably cool, you can sense the quartet straining to tick the right boxes rather than pursuing a sound that's theirs alone...
- www.theguardian.com
2014-06-08
★★★★★
The debut album from this UK outfit led by vocalist/producer Dave Bayley is a consistently engaging set of absorbing, R&B-tinged synth/pop that stands out with its slinky mid-tempo beats and a few exceptionally sultry standouts. 5/9/2014
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- kexp.org
2014-05-10
★★★★★
There is a danger you can have too much of a good thing, and 'Zaba' may perfectly illustrate this. With their sparse sonic structures, delicate ushering of synths, breathy vocal hooks and percussion that bursts into florets of Tropicália, Oxford foursome Glass Animals seem lithe and hungry to traverse expansive new territories of style. When we heard their 'Leaflings' EP, we quickly staged a Clash gig to service our flagrant desire to share their plaintive sounds...
- www.clashmusic.com
2014-07-16
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