Glass Animals have teamed up with iann dior to release a new version of their popular song “Heat Waves.” The track features dior on vocals and also refreshes the track’s original production.
Glass Animals playfully teased the song on Twitter earlier this week. Now, the track is live and available for streaming via Spotify.
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wavey. this thursday with @ianndior pic.twitter.com/JoLXvuguwF
— Glass Animals (@GlassAnimals) March 23, 2021
“Heat Waves” was originally released in 2020 in the lead-up to Glass Animals’ third album Dreamland. The hit track has been a regular source of attention for the group. The song was featured on the music podcast Song Exploder, where it was analyzed in detail. The group also dropped Heat Waves (Expansion Pack), which featured remixes by Oliver Heldens, Riton and Sonny Fodera.
The reprised version was remixed by band frontman Dave Bayley, who also regularly produces music. In addition to Glass Animals tracks, Bayley has worked on Khalid and 6LACK’s “Seasons” and Suzi Wu’s “Eat Them Apples.” Glass Animals have also collaborated with Hayley Williams, teaming up with the singer to remix Petals For Armor track “Dead Horse.”
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Bayley’s latest remix ramps up the song’s energy, boosting the track’s instrumentals. Additionally, the new cut introduces vocals from hip-hop crooner iann dior.
dior has also been busy in the last year. No stranger to collabs, the singer worked with Machine Gun Kelly and Travis Barker on “Sick And Tired” and “nothing inside.” More recently, dior teamed up with producer Illenium for the single “First Time.”
Of course, dior’s 2020 hit with 24kGoldn “Mood” remained a pop powerhouse into 2021, earning continued airplay and chart recognition. Glass Animals had previously covered “Mood,” working the track into a live performance for BBC Radio 1. Following the performance, the group tweeted that they had learned the song only 48 hours before the gig.
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In his latest collab, dior’s vocals amplify the emotional intensity of the song. His verse speaks of deep passion, but also to the heartbreak of unrequited love.
You can listen to Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves (with iann dior)” below.
More About Glass Animals
Glass Animals originally formed in Oxford, England in 2010. The group garnered significant attention for their 2014 debut full-length ZABA. In particular, the song “Gooey” was immensely popular, earning an RIAA platinum certification by the end of 2018.
The group continued to grow with their 2016 release How To Be A Human Being. In an interview with The Line Of Best Fit, band frontman Dave Bayley detailed the character underlying the single “Youth” as well as the broader process of writing the album.
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The band returned in 2020 with their latest full-length Dreamland, available via Wolf Tone Records. That record produced a number of singles, including “Heat Wave” and “Your Love (Déjà Vu).” The album also saw the group team up with the rapper Denzel Curry for “Tokyo Drifting.”
Dreamland was originally posted for a mid-summer release. However, the band delayed the record to avoid taking attention from the Black Lives Matter movement, announcing the decision on their Instagram.
“As some of you may have worked out, a few weeks ago we were supposed to release one of the main singles from album 3,” the statement read. “The deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery horrified us to our core, and the despicable responses of police brutality and the hideous behaviour of extremists that followed were completely heartbreaking. It couldn’t have felt more like the wrong time to release music. All eyes and minds are needed to be focused on civil rights and understanding how to defeat prejudice, and we made the decision to pause our album release plan indefinitely.”
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Glass Animals have remained busy in the wake of their record, despite the isolation of COVID-19. Bayley recently teamed up with rising alt singer Holly Humberstone to play an acoustic rendition of “Heat Waves.”
What do you think of the Glass Animals’ “Heat Waves (with iann dior)”? Let us know in the comments below.