how to be a human being by glass animals
songs you should hear: pork soda + season 2 episode 3

To say it simply, this is the singlemost influential album to my entire music taste ever. This is the first album I ever got into on my own with no influence from my family; This is where my music taste begn developing. I found it in a way I'm sure is very relatable to gay teenaged furries - from an animation meme. There were a lot of glass animals animation memes, they were impossible to ignore.

This album both in its actual contents and its story are so beautiful to me. The songs detail semi-fictional characters inspired by people that Dave Bayley, the lead singer, met while touring and travelling. The title "How to Be a Human Being" reflects this; These are all different types of paths you can go through in life. All of these lives seem pretty abysmal in one way or another - multiple songs dealing with substance abuse (Cane shuga, Mama's gun, Agnes, Pork Soda) or feeling like an overall failure (Youth, Life itself, Season 2 Episode 3) - these subjects were very appealing to prepubescent me. Season 2 Episode 3 is my absolute favourite song, which follows a girl who stays at home all day living in her own depressive filth. I didn't realize why I liked this song so much until I played it to my therapist at 14, and realized how that's how I'd been living for the 3 previous years.

These songs are all beautifully made too. Glass Animals is really good at exploring different genres, this being their first step into a pop-ier direction. The esoteric subjects and interesting instruments is whats stuck with me forever & what I look for in music to this day. I love the strong beats in Take a Slice and The Other Side of Paradise, the strong build ups in Life Itself and Pork Soda, the fun synths in Season 2 Episode 3 and Agnes. I cannot recommend this album enough :')/