About “How to Be a Human Being”

Glass Animals travels from the fantasy land of Zaba to the modern world in How to Be a Human Being. The music doesn’t get much happier.

How to Be a Human Being is Glass Animal’s sophomore full-length album. For the concept, lead singer Dave Bayley drew from stories people told him while on tour. According to his Billboard interview:

I was recording all of these people telling me stories. On tour you meet so many people. 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. People tell you some incredible things – some totally deep, dark secrets – with a sort of cheekiness to it. They’re laughing as they’re telling you these dark, or sad, or really gross things. And even if they’re telling you a happy story, you can sense the emotion underneath that.

Each track is inspired by a character, with all of them creating the “awkward family portrait” on the album cover.

“Life Itself” serves as the lead single.

“Life Itself” – white man in the back far left.

“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 right.

“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.