Underrated Albums: ZABA

Indie pop band, Glass Animals, released their debut album ZABA. The album was released on June 17, 2014.

Before the release of ZABA, Glass Animals released an EP titled, Leaflings in 2012 which held four songs on it: “Golden Antlers”, “Cocoa Hooves”, “Dust In Your Pocket”, and “Cocoa Hooves Part II”. “Cocoa Hooves” also later made it into ZABA.

After their Leaflings EP, the band released a self-titled EP in 2013, consisting of four songs again: “Psylla”, “Black Mambo”, “Exxus”, and “Woozy”. The band got recognition for their song “Black Mambo” which later made it to their ZABA album.

Glass Animals later released three more singles, “Pools”, “Gooey”, and “Hazey”, which all made it onto the debut album.

Throughout the whole album, there’s a jungle undertone in each song, several sounds of birds, animals, and running water; all complementing the jungle look to the album cover. The album was inspired by the children’s book, The Zabajaba Jungle, by William Steig.

ZABA consists of 11 tracks on the standard version and 15 on their deluxe version. On the deluxe, the band included four stripped versions of songs off their standard version of ZABA. Off the album, the band got recognition with two tracks, “Black Mambo” and “Gooey”, both of them appealing to new listeners of the band.

The album peaked 12th on the Australian Albums charts while in America it peaked 117 on Billboard 200.

Although the album didn’t chart well, ZABA has a unique sound that isn’t standard to most indie pop bands. ZABA is worth the listen on Spotify to see if this new style appeals to the listener and worth the purchase on iTunes.