“Life Itself” (Chuck Rogers)– white man in the back far right.
“Youth” – the little boy in the bottom middle.
“Season 2 Episode 3” – the blonde girl on the bottom left.
“Pork Soda” – the black man in the back far left.
“Mama’s Gun” – the obese woman in pink.
“Cane Shuga” – the man in the speedo.
“[Premade Sandwiches]” – the waitress on the left of the middle row.
“The Other Side Of Paradise” – the basketball player in the back row.
“Take A Slice” – the Asian woman on the far right bottom row.
“Poplar St” – the woman in the white dress.
“Agnes” – the guy with the cameras in the middle.
This album is one of my favorites to talk about with friends because not only is it insanely good, but it’s one of the most interesting concepts and storylines to me.
In an interview with Billboard lead singer Dave Bayley said he drew from stories people told him while on tour: “I was recording all of these people telling me stories… As soon as you walk off the tour bus, you meet fans. You meet some radio people, taxi drivers, people at parties – you meet all these people and hear all their stories. I was a stranger, so I think people interacted differently than they would interact with their closest friends. But I also got the impression that people wouldn’t have told these stories to their closest friends.”
Each track is inspired by a character, with all of them creating the “awkward family portrait” on the album cover, however Bayley later in the interview clarifies by saying, “there are pieces I took from those stories, but for the most part, the characters on the record are made up. They’re actually quite autobiographical.”
How To Be A Human Being is the second album from Glass Animals- an Oxford-born indie-rock/ psychedelic-pop band consisting of lead singer, songwriter, and producer Dave Bayley and his childhood friends: drummer Joe Seaward, bassist/keyboardist Ed Irwin-Singer, and guitarist/keyboardist Drew MacFarlane.
The members of Glass Animals were all in the middle of getting degrees- including frontman Dave Bayley who was working towards a medical degree- when producer Paul Epworth saw the band performing in London and signed them to his label Wolf Tone. Bayley ended up switching his major to neuroscience and wrapped up his degree while creating music to post online before choosing the band as a full-time career.
One of my best friends, Caroline, is the biggest Glass Animals fan I know and is actually the one who introduced me to them. So I felt that it was only fitting that I let her help tell you about our two favorite songs (Take A Slice and Season 2 Episode 3) from this album!
Take A Slice follows a college aged woman who is a sex worker. The song opens with the conversation ‘Smells good up here. Yeah, it’s the candle, yo it’s uh… (laughs)…Sausage candle… Most people don’t do it the way I do it, very personal… Y’know, like whatever… I just like sausage-‘ which implies that it smells like sex in the room, but also that they liked that fact.
“Take a slice is just- *chefs kiss*. The intro is cool to listen to with the distorted voices and the fact that you can only make out some of the words. The subject of this song is a sex worker and the song talks about how she’s gonna ‘f*ck [her] way through college’. Which has a double meaning because she’s a sex worker to put herself through school, but it’s also because she wants to do it, and in my opinion I think that’s great!”
“Some of the very first lyrics in the song refer to an old riddle, but they captivated me even before I understood the reference. When they say ‘I don’t ever wanna pick a slice; one is pretty but the other lies’ it is referring to the riddle of being in a jail cell with two guards and two doors; one guard is telling the truth (the pretty slice) and will give you freedom, but the other is lying and will kill you (the lies slice).”
Most of the official videos released feature other characters from the album.
“Season 2 Episode 3 immediately caught my attention the first time I heard it because it sounded like a retro Super Mario game. Dave Bayley’s voice provides a unique and dreamy sound which makes it appear as a love song, but when you actually listen to the lyrics it’s about how the subject is better off without their partner, who is gonna struggle without them. Some of the first lyrics are ‘now my head is on backwards and my feet at funny angles’ and I think that’s so weird and therefore amazing! The song has got a super funky beat and is so easy to groove to in any situation.”
Caroline showed me Season 2 Episode 3 for the first time and I was immediately drawn to the unique arcade-game-like sound in the intro. Plus, just as Caroline said, Dave Bayley’s voice is dreamy and makes the song flow well. You can’t help but wanna bob your head along with the beat.
It’s also interesting because it’s the only song on the album where the character doesn’t represent the narrator, but rather the subject of the song. The character and video created for this track is another college-aged woman who likes to get high and be lazy which caused their relationship to fail.
Overall, this album deserves 45 minutes of your time to sit down and listen to whenever you get a chance! *cough* during quarantine? *cough*
Shea's FDOM Blog 