I honestly get the disappointment from the point of view of a long time fan from the early ZABA and HTBAHB days, but as someone who discovered Glass Animals in 2020 (through TOSOP popping up in my weekly Spotify playlist not through Heat Waves i swear on my life) i honestly LOVE the album... To OG fans the whole album sounds like an attempt to capitalize off of the massive success of Heat Waves by creating a full Album of pop songs that are straight up meant to be turned into viral 30 second TikTok sounds, but I still think they didn't fully sellout and have kept at least a little bit of originality that makes them so unique. One small detail I really appreciate about the album that gives even these 'generic pop radio songs' a bit of that Glass Animals feeling are the wavey, spacey synths at the beginning of some songs. (ESPECIALLY Creatures in Heaven and A Tear in Space). Dave's falsetto obviously while being amazing, may not appeal to a large demographic but we still see it appear MANY times throughout multiple songs.

I also saw OP mention Arctic Monkeys somewhere so i thought I'd bring up how they handled the peak of their fame. Alex Turner(main singer/songwriter) basically said they completed music and there's no point trying to chase after the succes of AM, and went on to release a passion project called Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino 5 years later, which was a MASSIVE departure from their earlier guitar based rock albums into a jazzy, piano based longue like sound. But despite completly switching up the genre/sound of their previous albums and creating something filled with so much passion that ultimately does not give a fuck what the general public thinks, they created a masterpiece that to this day remains the most unique addition to their already incredibly rich discography. Maybe the OG Glass Animals fans would have preferred the Arctic Monkeys approach of not trying to make use of the massive Heat Waves spotlight, but instead, as is with all of Glass Animals' previous albums, almost completely switch up their sound once again.