Glass Animal’s “How to be a Human Being” album is an incredibly fascinating work of art that is very open to interpretation. Released in August, 2016, the album contains 11 songs, each corresponding to a different character on the retro-themed album cover. According to Dave Bayley, the lead sing, writer, and producer for Glass Animals, each character represents a different person that the band met while touring, all cohesively created into one storyline. There is so much meaning to unpack throughout this entire album that I could write a post about each song, but I will be focusing on the first song of the album, Life Itself, because I feel it is most representative of the overall message of the album as a whole.
To start off, I would highly recommend watching the music video for the song, Life Itself, if you haven’t already. The video brings in many of the characters represented in the other songs and has an engaging plot that is up to interpretation. Although there are many theories to go along with video, there is one that I especially find interesting. The main idea is that the man driving the car is time travelling back to save his younger self (the boy) from this traumatic experience and does so by killing the woman who kidnapped him (woman wearing white) with the smoke bomb. With this in mind, you can figure the waitress is the boy’s actual mom both by when she grasps her “heart” necklace, remembering her son, and when she appears upset when a call comes in from the woman wearing white. In terms of the woman in pink, whether she is the boy’s adoptive mother who came along for the time travelling, or another relative, is up for debate. Keep in mind that each of these characters represent a different song, so you can obtain more information on each of them individually by listening to the lyrics to all the songs. This theory of the music video is one of many, and depending on what perspective you take while watching, it can have a multitude of meanings.
In addition to the ideas from the music video, the lyrics to the song, Life Itself, provide deeper meaning and bring up other important messages. Dave Bayley said that this song is about a “guy who was born a bit strange, and struggles to become part of society”. But in addition to not fitting in to the world around you, I interpret this song’s main idea to be about taking a step back and recognizing what we are thinking and not always blindly accepting our assumptions about both ourselves and other people. When people look at someone’s behavior, they often attribute it to the personality of the person rather than how they are responding to the external factors in their environment. Becoming more open-minded and not letting the negative words people say affect us is a very important idea: “she said I look fat, but I look fantastic”. Not being what other people want you to be and being free from their judgements by becoming your own person is represented by the lyrics, “gotta get back, gotta get free” and “brought me up tough, but I was a gentle human”. Upon first listening to this song, you might jump to a conclusion about the character after hearing the lyrics “waking up lost in boxes outside Tesco, look like a bum”. But the entire message of this song is to look at it through a new lens, and consider that maybe the character isn’t as they seem.
Both the music video and the lyrics to the song Life Itself are open to interpretation and have an overall idea of being yourself without conforming to societal pressures and also taking a step back to realize what judgements you are making about yourself and other people.
This album sounds amazing! I, like many others, really only discovered the band Glass Animals after listening to their 2021 smash-hit “Heat Waves.” What are your thoughts on that song? After reading your blog post, it sounds like “Heat Waves,” although popular, comes nowhere close to the level of depth and creativity seen in their “How to be a Human Being” album. I really love the idea of the band using the album’s cover art to relate to each track; I think it is an incredibly creative concept and would definitely influence me to listen to each song carefully. Also, the way you described the music video seems like it was very effective in explaining the meaning of the song “Life Itself.” I always learn something from your blog, and I’ll definitely have to check out this album!
I love how thoughtful your analysis about “How to be a Human Being” seems to be. Similarly to your last post, you seem to enjoy music that holds a deeper meaning. I will admit, the plot of the overarching story seems to be slightly confusing, but the overall message does sound appealing. Especially in college, it is important not to make blind assumptions about people and to look past their judgements of you. This album seems to represent this idea through the time-travel process. By metaphorically going back in time to save himself, the protagonist seems to be examining himself and looking internally to reflect on his own character. This is something we all should do, which is why I definitely will need to give this album a try in the future.
As an avid ‘Glass Animals’ connoisseur, I had already listened to the entirety of ‘How to be a Human Being’ (and related music videos) prior to reading this blog post. I agree with the majority of your analysis – ‘Life Itself’ definitely is one of the more open-ended songs on this track, and the lyrics you mentioned provoke deeper thoughts. However, I wish you had at least mentioned ‘Agnes’, which is the greatest closing track in their entire discography, and perhaps in contemporary music as a whole. I’d compare the song to an onion – every listen peels back another layer of the sheer brilliance displayed by Bayley and co., and the music video adds another flavorful element to the work as a whole.