Dave Bayley has a thing for fruit. And pineapples. And neon-soaked, sticky-sweet metaphors that feel like they’re melting off the bone. When you listen to the phrase in your fantasy lyrics from the Glass Animals’ hit "Heat Waves," you aren't just hearing a throwaway line about daydreaming. You're catching a glimpse into a very specific brand of British psychedelic pop that relies on "world-building" rather than just songwriting. It’s about the gap between who we want people to be and the messy, flawed reality of who they actually are.
Most people think "Heat Waves" is a simple summer anthem. It isn't. Not really. It’s a song about grief and the realization that you can't make someone happy if they don't want to be. The line "sometimes all I think about is you / late nights in the middle of June" sets the scene, but the meat of the track lives in that "fantasy" space. It's an admission. You've been living in a version of a person that doesn't exist anymore.
Why the "Fantasy" Matters in Dreamland
Glass Animals released the album Dreamland during the height of the 2020 lockdowns. Perfect timing. Everyone was stuck in their own heads. Dave Bayley, the band’s frontman and primary songwriter, has explained in various interviews (including a particularly insightful session with Song Exploder) that the record is basically a memory dump. It’s an autobiography. But because Bayley is a neurobiology student by trade, he doesn't write straight-up diary entries. He writes symptoms.
The "fantasy" mentioned in the lyrics is a protective layer. Honestly, we all do it. When a relationship ends—or when someone passes away, as Bayley was processing with a childhood friend—we scrub the bad parts. We create a "fantasy" version of the person. You start talking to that version of them in your head. You argue with the fantasy. You apologize to the fantasy.
The lyrics capture that specific, lonely vibration of realizing you’re in love with a ghost. It’s not just about "wanting" someone. It's about the cognitive dissonance of knowing they're gone but keeping them alive in a mental simulation.
The Production is the Subtext
If you listen closely to the "in your fantasy" section, the production mimics that hazy, distorted feeling of a dream. Bayley is known for using "found sounds." He’s used the sound of a person hitting a lightbulb. He’s used field recordings from the streets of London. In "Heat Waves," the vocal is pitched and warped.
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It sounds like it’s underwater. Or maybe like it’s being played through a wall.
That’s intentional. It reflects the distance between the narrator and the subject. You’re not in the room with them; you’re in your fantasy. The music feels thick. It feels like 100-degree humidity in a city where the asphalt is radiating heat. That’s the "Heat Waves" part—the visual distortion that happens on a hot road. You see something in the distance, but it’s just a shimmering trick of the light.
Breaking Down the "Late Nights" Mentality
Why June? Why the middle of the night?
Sleep deprivation does weird things to the brain. Bayley has talked about his insomnia before. When you can’t sleep, your brain starts looping. It’s called "ruminative thinking." You replay conversations. You wonder if you said the right thing in 2012.
- The "Fantasy" represents the idealized past.
- The "Heat" represents the overwhelming pressure of the present.
- The "Lyrics" themselves are a confession of inadequacy.
There’s a specific line: "I just wish that I could give you that." It’s heartbreaking because it’s a realization of failure. The narrator wants to be the person who can fix the other person’s sadness, but they realize they’re just a supporting character in someone else’s tragedy.
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The Global Impact of a Very Personal Line
It is wild to think about how a song written in a small studio in London became the longest-charting song in Billboard Hot 100 history. Over 90 weeks. Why? Because the "fantasy" is universal.
Whether you’re a teenager in Ohio or a 40-year-old in Tokyo, you’ve had that moment where you realize your version of a person isn't real. The "in your fantasy lyrics" became a TikTok staple not because of the beat, but because the sentiment is incredibly relatable. It’s the "I miss the version of you I made up in my head" trope, but set to a woozy, hip-hop-inflected beat.
The song actually beat out The Weeknd’s "Blinding Lights" for longevity. That’s insane. It happened because the song stayed "sticky." It didn't feel like a corporate product. It felt like someone’s actual internal monologue.
Moving Past the Mirage
If you’re dissecting these lyrics because you’re stuck in your own "middle of June" loop, there’s actually some psychological utility here. Bayley’s songwriting suggests that naming the fantasy is the first step to breaking it. By saying "I’m looking for the sparkle in your eyes / in your fantasy," he’s acknowledging that the sparkle isn't there in real life.
It’s a brutal realization. But it’s a necessary one.
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To truly understand the depth of the track, you have to look at the music video. Bayley walks through the empty streets of London, pulling a wagon full of TVs. He’s literally carrying the "screens" and "fantasies" of his life through a ghost town. It’s a visual metaphor for the weight of memory.
Real-World Takeaways for Your Playlist
If you want to find more music that hits this specific "fantasy vs. reality" nerve, you should look into the "Bedroom Pop" movement or artists who play with "liminal spaces."
- Check out Tame Impala’s Lonerism: It covers similar ground regarding social anxiety and internal worlds.
- Listen to "The Other Side of Paradise": This is another Glass Animals track that deals with the dark side of fame and the "fantasy" of success.
- Analyze the tempo: Notice how "Heat Waves" stays at a steady 80 BPM. It’s a walking pace. It’s the pace of someone wandering through their own thoughts.
The core lesson of the in your fantasy lyrics is that nostalgia is a dangerous drug. It feels good, but it’s a distortion. Dave Bayley didn't write a love song; he wrote an autopsy of a memory. He just happened to make it catchy enough to play at every summer BBQ for the next decade.
Stop trying to live in the "middle of June" if it's already October. The fantasy version of people will always be more perfect than the real ones, but the real ones are the only ones who can actually talk back. If you find yourself looping these lyrics, take it as a sign to look at what’s actually in front of you, rather than the shimmering heat haze of what used to be. Focus on the tangible. Turn off the internal projection screen. Start by putting the song on repeat, sure, but then go outside and feel the actual air, not the "June" in your head.