It's been two years since Glass Animals released their debut album, leaving in their wake Zaba -- a cascading tropical fever that catapulted them from England onto the world. The Oxford four-piece have been gracing music festivals ever since, securing a legion of drunk party-goers and festival junkies across Europe, Australia, and the US.
Anxiety over a second album was never a problem, thankfully, as the boys made regular updates through their Facebook and Tumblr accounts. It wasn't long before news of an incoming sophomore album made the rounds, accompanied by snippets of vague album details like, "one of the tracks references the excellent book Slaughterhouse 5." Perhaps out of sympathy to the rallying cries of impatient fans -- a two-track taste test happened -- "Life Itself" and "Youth" surfaced before the album's official arrival.
At long last, the 11-track LP is now out in it's full glory, a resplendent montage of 8-bit sounds, mayonnaise references, artist suicides, and loud percussion.
There are some elements of How To Be A Human Being that are reminiscent of it's predecessor: "Life Itself" is a host to the famed tropical fever that became Zaba's working identity. The other parts of the album frolic around synths, guitar solos, and prominent percussion. "Mama's Gun" leaves the impression of a fallen mystic Elven land that crawls under the skin, producing a hungering gradient of creepy and fantastical. The same thing happens with "Take A Slice," a delicious lo-fi exposé on the life of a struggling college student ("Shot a bullet thru my wallet / Gonna go to Pensacola / Gonna fuck my way through college"). Layers over layers, over layers of random human whoops, social commentary, referential snark, and the occasional gorilla grunt appear throughout the album. In "The Other Side of Paradise," psychedelic sci-fi meets pseudo hip-hop, all of which are superimposed over frontman, Dave Bayley's chilling ballads. "Season 2 Episode 3" is an 8-bit wonderland at best that also serves as a romantic ode to the non-heroes (ie. the couch potatoes and unemployed bums).
How To Be A Human Being proves itself as more than just an enticing musical playground; it is, among other things, a celebration of the most mundane, most obscure, most irrelevant of human experiences -- a revolution of the unremarkable and the obnoxious. "Big dick and no soul," "Non GMO locally sourced quinoa and chia seeds," "People standing in line and they don't even know why," rants Bayley in "[Premade Sandwiches]" a peculiar anti-song that catalogs pet peeves, healthy diet fads, and describes people as unknowing automatons.
The mood shifts come "Agnes." As the track is more dense, it doesn't take long for the narrative to sink in, already the first verse sets up the foundation of the story where it builds up to a poignant chorus: "This time you overdid the liquor / This time you pulled the fuckin' trigger / These days you're rolling all the time / So low so you keep getting high."
The album imagines 11 individual lives and attempts to breathe life into these non-existent characters through sound. Part of the fun comes from trying to solve the mystery of who-means-what and unravel the personalities hiding beneath thick layers of experimental post-pop.
The boys have clearly sent the message with this LP that they will continue to push boundaries with their music -- and at that, they have been successful thus far.
Photo credit: Glass Animals / Website