How to Be a Human Being

 

 How to Be a Human Being 

Glass Animals released How to Be a Human Being in 2016. This is an album I’m very familiar with, however I will not waste the chance to write about one of the most interesting concept albums I’ve listened to. I was also fortunate enough to see them in concert a few years back so I have a personal connection to this album. How to Be a Human Being has a total of eleven songs, each representing one person on the cover art. I’d like to focus more on the meanings of these songs as they are inspired by the stories of real everyday people they encountered during their travels. 

Life Itself is a lovely album opener and sets the tone for the rest of the album well. The instrumental in the beginning seems to contain a transition from the sounds of their previous album Zaba, into their new sound. The song has a lot of energy despite the dark contrasting lyrics about a person struggling to fit into society. The narrator is arrogant, the lyrics serve to inflate his self deluded ego. The narrator is aware of his shortcomings and desires to be free from the external pressures of his life. Pork Soda is one of my favorites off the album with its unique lyrics and upbeat instrumental. The chorus comes from the singer coming across a homeless man who repeated the phrase “Pineapples are in my head” to people who passed by. The band liked it enough to put it in the song. The themes cover a relationship that is drifting apart and how the narrator is spiraling in this powerlessness. He still has a lot of love for her and hopes to rekindle what they once had. 

Mama’s Gun is by far the most intense in terms of themes. It was inspired by the story of a taxi driver who went on an intense bender and blacked out for a month. When she woke up in a completely different state, she was faced with the nagging fear that she had done something terribly wrong. Listening to the opening lyrics make it blatantly clear that she believes she might have killed someone. The song samples the flute instrumental from Mr Guder, a song by The Carpenters. Each sample on the album was chosen meticulously to coincide with the themes of the album. There are multiple references to Neverland, hinting at the narrator's inability to separate reality from their thoughts. 

Though only an interlude, Premade Sandwiches offers up an interesting perspective on consumerism. This spoken word rant depicts a more cynical outlook on life. Many people will completely disregard this track because of its briefness and the fact it sounds pretty creepy, I find it pretty interesting. The track serves as an internal monologue, detailing the monotonous life that the working class has to live. I really enjoy the last line of the interlude, describing going through the motions of life as: People standing in line and they don’t even know why. 

Other Side of Paradise has a very clear storyline, the narrator sorrowfully talking about how her boyfriend left her to pursue a basketball career in the big city. She is eager for revenge and it may be implied that she tried to kill him. While this isn’t taken directly from a real story it covers the pursuit of fame and the fallout that everyone around you faces as a result. The song title itself is a play on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel “This Side of Paradise” which I found really interesting. Take a Slice is as sleazy as it gets, with lyrics full of sexual references. I see it as a form of escapism, distracting themselves from real life with sex and drugs. The guitar solo that builds up towards the end is addicting. As a little bonus, I did not realize how good Poplar St was, this was definitely a song I wrote off when I first heard the album. I’ve found a whole new appreciation for it. 

Clearly I really enjoy this album, I really admire the storytelling in each of these songs. Glass Animals had a pretty large genre change, producing standard pop music. The commercial success of Heatwaves caused a huge shift in direction for the band. As of late they have been moving away from their old sound, driving away some of their previous audience, me included unfortunately. While I’m glad they are more well known, I miss their psychedelic pop/rock sound and wish they’d return to that.