Glowbug has become one of the most divisive artists within my friend group, and I don’t understand it. Daniel Anderson’s music has the strange capacity to delight and disgust. Maybe it’s because his songwriting has always been an amalgamation of disparate elements, Talking Heads meets Weezer meets M83 meets Fear Before. Tropical steel drum, bright horns, pounding drums, and clean and screamed vocals dance around. Even so, each Glowbug release certainly focuses on one side of this combination. Vampire Empire was an alt-rock classic, The Bumblebee King was adorned in vintage sounds of the big band and motown eras, and VHS was unsurprisingly synth-heavy. Under all of this, Glowbug has always had little tastes of metal, like the screaming on “Death Wish” and “Phantoms” or the more overt features on Headhunters, but screaming and chaotic guitar has largely been confined to Anderson’s other project, Idiot Pilot.

Weird changes this. Or does it?

Anderson’s strength has always been in crafting music in different veins that somehow feels like it’s from the same universe. Perhaps the biggest point of contention for some listeners after the first single might have been why Weird, with its heavier elements and feature of Michael Harris, wasn’t just another Idiot Pilot record. The mystery cleared quickly as additional singles followed, but even beyond Harris’ absence on the rest of the record, the song still have all the Glowbug trademarks. Sure, Weird works as a collection, but it’s not perfectly monogamous. “Bury the Hatchet” feels like it would be at home on Your Funeral. “Turn Down This Song” just screams Fantasma Del Tropico. “Dead Comedian” pulls from the best of The Bumblebee King. Sure, there’s overall more screaming, but much of the time, the underlying composition is bright and upbeat. Just like Will Swan managed to make his brand of happy post-hardcore a phenomenon, Anderson has arguably crafted one of the sexiest takes on the metal and hard rock genre. Weird‘s album art says everything you need to know: the black metal font paired with a sad looking cat is an incredible visual representation of the album’s extremes. Anderson isn’t actual dark. Maybe he’s not even really metal.

After a string of subsequent early-year album drops. 2024 was the first time in about half a decade where Anderson was suspiciously-silent. I was hopeful this year would be different, but as March and April faded, I had all but given up hope. While Weird comes a bit later in the year than previous records, it’s the same Glowbug I know and love. This is an album that has more commonalities with its predecessors than differences, and if you can handle a bit more screaming and slightly more prominent electric guitar, you’ll easily see past the heavy veneer toward the thoughtful and complex songwriting Anderson has been crafting for decades. Or, if you’re like some of my friends, you’ll hate it.