Album Review: Glass Animals “How To Be A Human Being” Is A Musical Storybook
Glass Animals’ How To Be A Human Being is rocket-ship attempt to peal back the labels of humanity and observe its layers. In 11 tracks, the album feels like a close-up shot into the intimate lives and inner workings of 11 different people. Each carrying their own insecurities and virtues, while deciding how to reveal them to the world. Luckily, Glass Animals has a musical idea!
Youth
I am a huge fan of songs that are about people. Eleanor Rigby, Roxanne, Maria Maria, etc, were all classic hits because they observed the spiritual elements of a person’s heart. They showed the resilience and loneliness of a human being trying to make his or her way through makeshift situations. Hearing their tales is like hearing our own, which is why songs like Agnes, The Other Side of Paradise, and Mama’s Gun will have listeners’ so emotionally moved. To hear the tales of humanity intertwined with afro-rock rhythms will stir in you both tears and smiles, which is what makes this album subtly powerful.
Life Itself
When an album makes you feel things like compassion, empathy, joy, love, peace, and literally every virtue in the universe then that is power. For those that loved their playfully sexy first album Zaba, Glass Animals’ sophomore album is different in the kindest way. We all love music because it makes us feel like ourselves, hence we treasure songs that leave us vulnerable or teach us how to be better. Thus, How To Be A Human Being should be called How To Be A Better Human Being. As you hear every song, you hear a story, and by the end, of this record you hear your own heart. That being said songs like, Life Itself and Cane Shuga offer ripe dancing opportunities, but I do not think that was the main goal of this rhythmically dynamic album. The goal was to make you feel.
In Dave Bayley’s Own Words
The Album Concept
“Its called How to be a Human Being and its about people. The idea came from a bunch of recordings I made of conversations. I found that while we were on tour strangers would open up and tell me things they probably wouldnt tell their closest friends. I started recording it all. amazing things, heartbreaking things, weird things, hilarious things. In november i sat down and listened to everything i had back to back. i started obsessing about the way people told stories. what people talk about, what they exaggerate, what they leave out, what the story actually means, and what all of that said about who they were as people. It all made me want to create my own characters and my own stories and hide a little bit of myself in each one. the guys and I talked about the idea and they were all down. each song a different character and a different story.”
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