English indie quartet Glass Animals recently released their sophomore album _How To Be A Human Being_. If you’ve listened to the album already, you probably noticed the group of eccentric characters on the album artwork. Each of the 11 tracks on the record revolves around one of the 11 characters featured on the album’s cover. The band has refused to tell their fans which song is about which character. That’s why I’m here to try and figure it out for you. Before I dive into this, let me start off by saying that while I’m making educated guesses, I could most definitely be wrong with some of these “character-song” matchups. Without further ado, let’s get started.
#### “LIFE ITSELF”
You don’t need to do much research to figure out who this song is about. The opening track is about a man named Chuck Rogers, who appears in a white shirt and glasses in the top right corner of the artwork. When the single was released in May, the artwork featured Chuck Rogers looking into a car. In addition, Glass Animals created a [website](http://raygun123.com/) for Chuck where an 8-bit “Life Itself” remix plays in the background. All of the evidence points toward this song being about Chuck Rogers.
#### “YOUTH”
The album’s second track is about the waitress. She can be found in between the man with the camera and the man in a Speedo. The music video for “Youth” portrays the waitress searching for her son, who can be seen below her on the album cover. The lyrics suggest that the song is about a mother who deeply misses her son, which ties in with the video.
#### “SEASON 2 EPISODE 3”
This song is about the girl wearing a teal shirt in the bottom left corner. She is featured in the music video, lounging around on an orange couch, eating mayonnaise straight from the jar (as mentioned in the lyrics). On the album art, she is holding a Game Boy, so it’s only fitting that the song would feature retro video-game noises.
#### “PORK SODA”
“Pork Soda” focuses on the man in the red sweater in between the waitress and the man in the Speedo. This guess mainly comes from the process of elimination more than anything else. The song is definitely about one of the male characters, considering that the narrator doesn’t consider himself a “sweet prince of love,” and he reminisces of his former lover in a “wet dress.” There is enough evidence that links every other male character to another song, so we are left with the man in the red sweater.
#### “MAMA’S GUN”
I’m not too certain about this one. In NME’s interview with vocalist Dave Bayley, he said the song was inspired by a taxi driver who blacked out for a month because of drug abuse and believed she had murdered someone during that month. That being said, the song is most likely about the woman in the pink dress. The band’s [Tumblr](http://glassanimalsband.tumblr.com/tagged/mamasgun) page hints at it, as it features pictures of women that look similar to her tagged as “#mamasgun.”
#### “CANE SHUGA”
The sixth track, “Cane Shuga,” is about the man in a Speedo on the left. “Cane shuga” is a slang term for cocaine, and you would imagine that someone who sells it would be relatively wealthy. On the cover, he is sporting a gold necklace, some gold rings and a gold watch. These things seem to go hand-in-hand. In addition, Bayley created [“mood boards”](https://www.creativereview.co.uk/glass-animals-front-man-dave-bayley-storytelling-making-album-artwork-digital-age/) for each character on the album so that he could better conceptualize each character. On the mood board for “Cane Shuga,” you can see the man’s phone, his watch and expensive cars.
#### “[PREMADE SANDWICHES]”
Unfortunately, I’m completely lost as far as which character corresponds to this spoken-word interlude. Hopefully this is something that fans learn more about down the road, because this track really messes with my curiosity.
#### “THE OTHER SIDE OF PARADISE”
This song is about the basketball player in the back row. This is pretty easy to figure out, with lyrics such as “Gonna be a hoop phenomenon / He’s gonna be Hakeem Olajuwon.” There is more evidence on the band’s Tumblr page, which has numerous posts pertaining to basketball tagged as “#theothersideofparadise.”
#### “TAKE A SLICE”
“Take a Slice” likely revolves around the woman in the white shirt in the bottom right corner. This can also be deduced from the band’s Tumblr page. Posts tagged as “#takeaslice” feature women that bear a similar appearance to the woman in the white shirt. Also, the song’s lyrics mention that this character wants to “f— her way through college.” The woman appears to be approximately college-aged, so this would make sense. There isn’t much evidence to corroborate my guess, so hopefully the band talks about this song in later interviews.
#### “POPLAR ST”
The tenth track, “Poplar St,” is about the woman in the white dress standing next to the woman in the pink dress. The song refers to a woman named Mrs. Moore (probably the woman in the white dress), who seduces young men. The band’s Tumblr page comes in handy again, with pictures of women in white dresses tagged as “#poplarst.” There is also a picture of a pair of yellow sunglasses tagged as “#poplarst.” She can be found wearing a similar pair of sunglasses on the vinyl artwork.
#### “AGNES”
The album’s closer, “Agnes,” revolves around the man in the center holding a camera. Thankfully, Glass Animals also revealed their mood board for this track. There are several pictures of a man with a camera on the mood board, which makes it pretty easy to figure out who this song is about.
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Now, there’s a somewhat solid foundation of which song corresponds to which character on the new Glass Animals album, but why does that matter? Why should you care?
This album represents human nature in a way that many other albums don’t. _How To Be A Human Being_ shows that the world is filled with different people who live different lives and have really interesting stories to tell. While every individual is unique, we are all connected through a common sense of humanity and experience.
Our experiences may greatly differ from one another, but we all experience things nonetheless. Some experiences are outright comical, some are tragic and some are joyful. You never truly know what someone has experienced until you meet them and converse with them, just as people never know what you have experienced unless they talk to you. That is exactly what _How To Be A Human Being_ conveys. It’s a musical narration of who we are as people, and that’s why you should listen to it.