Arlo Parks recently joined Glass Animals for their online live streamed gig which fans where able to tune into while live music, as it is now, remained impossible in the UK. While there is now seemingly some light at the end of the tunnel, with large events to be allowed in tier 1 areas, since the majority of bands like Glass Animals have now postponed their tours until summer or later in 2021, fans will have to make do with live streams and radio appearances for now.

Glass Animals released ‘Dreamland,’ on the 20th of August 2020 after delaying the release date initially planned due to coronavirus. Fortunately for the band this only seemed to fuel excitement amongst fans for the new release and it soared to number 2 on the official album charts, by far their most successful album chart performance to date. The rise of online activity amongst all generations throughout lockdown also served the band very well as it gave them the perfect opportunity to show off how tack savvy the Oxford band had become.

CD and Vinyl copies of ‘Dreamland,’ held a hidden surprise for fans who managed to secure a physical copy, with specially designed album art which paired with an instagram filter which utilised augmented reality technology to make the shapes and images on the cover art appear to become three dimensionally and rise out of the cover and start moving around in a virtual 3D world viewed through the phone screen.

The futuristic vibe was continued in their video for ‘Tangerine,’ which was created with help from fans and in collaboration with Marco Mori who designed a postmodern looking alternate dimension with humans made out of unusual textures including one that looks disturbingly like human intestine dancing along to the track and some wacky instagram type face filters which allow the faces of many fans to spin around these dancing entities in an increasingly surreal and Dalian scene.

There is much excitement amongst fans as to what song the band might be tackling as a cover version on the Radio One Live Lounge. The band have been known to perform covers in the past, including over the UK’s first lockdown when frontman Dave released a series of ‘Quarantine Covers,’ which featured such classics as David Bowie’s ‘Heart-Shaped Box,’ which was made famous by Kurt Cobain’s gravelly interpretation in the early 90s.

Glass Animals are scheduled to tour the UK, Europe and the US starting with home dates in May 2021. Full UK dates are as follows:

16/05/2021 – O2 Academy – Birmingham
19/05 – Victoria Warehouse – Manchester
21/05 – O2 Academy – Leeds
22/05 – Barrowland – Glasgow
23/05 – Rock City – Nottingham
25/05 – O2 Academy – Bristol
26/05 – Alexandra Palace – London

As for where the song came from, frontman and songwriter Brendon Urie explained, ” I spent too long not setting my expectations high enough, worried about how it felt to fail.” He then went on to dedicate the single to his fanbase, those who helped him to realise he “had to aim high and fail, fail, fail in order to keep growing”.

Whether Urie will choose to play High Hopes during his live lounge slot is uncertain but, should any fans be disappointed with his song choices, they could always look back on his previous appearances instead. Panic! At The Disco have graced the Live Lounge before, performing in 2015 following the release of Death Of A Bachelor. Their set included not only the single Hallelujah from that album cycle, but also early release and fan-favourite I Write Sings Not Tragedies, as well as a cover of Starboy by The Weeknd and Daft Punk.

You can catch Panic!’s Radio One appearance by tuning in at 12pm on Tuesday the 29th, where their music will no doubt be joined by a short interview segment. However, if you want to hear High Hopes and the rest of Pray For The Wicked live, then you can find Panic! At The Disco on this year’s Reading & Leeds festival line-up from August 24th to 26th, tickets available here.