A digicore king now at the cusp of mainstream prominence, glaive is truly pop music’s diamond in the rough.
Sharing his debut album, i care so much that i don’t care at all, on Friday (July 14), the North Carolina-bred star’s inaugural outing displays a coming-of-age tale spun for summer nights — finding his way into listeners’ hearts with emotional, show-ready performances on “ive made worse mistakes,” “the prom,” “tiziana” and “i care so much that I don’t care at all.”
Holding 13 tracks, the LP was preceded by four singles, with its latest “the car” (June 30) highlighting glaive’s refined melodies that take form within toxic love-torn lines about self-realization. The album’s other lead tracks, “all i do is try my best” (June 6), “im nothing thats all i am” (May 17) and “as if” (April 28), are brutally honest depictions of glaive’s personal and artistic evolution — embodying the sentiment of icsmtidcaa being his “life’s work… so far.”
“I recorded this album in a windowless garage in Los Angeles (a city I don’t particularly like) while simultaneously trying to decide who and what I wanted to be, and how I wanted to present that to other people. It’s a collection of feelings and thoughts that I had over the last three years. It sounds super cringe to say, but I suppose it is my life’s work, or at least it has been what I’ve spent my life working on, so far.”
glaive via release
The record finds glaive turning inward more than ever before — reflecting on outgrowing his hometown and finding himself in the process. “It’s the most similar to recording in North Carolina that I ever had,” he said, creating the album in a sweltering LA garage with no air conditioning and a studio dog. He initially hinted at his debut album during Lollapalooza last year, telling us his main goal was to make every song “beautiful.” And so he did.
“It all depends on if I can get everything done right now,” he divulged at Lolla in Chicago. “I’ve made a lot of good songs, but I want it to be like every song is like, great, beautiful. I don’t want to have any songs that I’m like, ‘Oh, this is like not the best.’ So I’m really focusing on trying to make everything perfect.”
Following his breakout project all dogs go to heaven — and coinciding deluxe old dog, new tricks — in 2021, glaive was primed to become a frontier face of pop’s next wave. Stemming from his roots in the SoundCloud-bred genre hyperpop, glaive achived greater visibility when he joined The Kid LAROI on his European tour, which followed 2022 singles in “minnesota is a place that exists,” “three wheels and it still drives” and “more than life” with MGK. None of these tracks will wind up on his debut.
The 18-year-old star also plans to embark on a North American tour this summer, beginning on July 27 in San Francisco and wrapping on Aug. 19 in Detroit. For fans who have been here since “clover” and cypress grove, i care so much that i don’t care at all showcases glaive at his most creatively unbound, wearing his heart on his sleeve.
Listen to glaive’s new album below!
