How To Be A Human Being takes the Glass Animals sound in a slightly new direction while still keeping the core of what made their debut album Zaba an instant hit.
Opening track Life Itself immediately signals the up tempo change in direction. Think Glass Animals with a Miike Snow vibe. The whole album keeps up this energetic style while remaining true to that distinctly Glass Animals sound. How To Be A Human Being is essentially Zaba on cocaine. Same band but a lot louder and more energetic.
Lyrically this album is one of the most interesting listens in a while. Lead vocalist Dave Bayley took an odd approach to his writing method, and even a cursory listen to the lyrics leads you down some dark and wonderful paths. Having spent a lot of time on the road the last few years, Bayley took clandestine recordings on his phone of things people would say to him when drunk/high/angry/just being strange, and wrote his lyrics based on these interactions. This is never more obvious than when listening to an interlude entirely about sandwiches.
What Glass Animals have done with How To Be A Human Being is take the slow, sexy, swing your hips, seductive sound from Zaba, and jazz it up. If you’re wanting more of the same you won’t find it here, but what you will find is an album that will only serve to propel Glass Animals further towards stardom. After sensing that their crowds reacted best to the Zaba songs with drums, bass, and tempo, the boys went and filled this album with just that and they did so excellently.
An album that will get you up and dancing, lift your mood, and have you wanting a sandwich all at the same time, How To Be A Human Being is downright fantastic.
BY NATHAN QUATTRUCCI
