How to Be a Human Being is the second studio album by English indie rock group Glass Animals. It was released on 26 August 2016 by Wolf Tone and Caroline International in Europe, and Harvest Records in the United States. Each of the eleven songs throughout the album represent a different person and their experiences.
The album received generally favourable reviews from music critics, who complimented its "sense of wonder" and "immediate impression", but felt it was somewhat premature. The album was nominated for the 2017 Mercury Prize.
Following the release of their debut studio album Zaba, Glass Animals began an aggressive tour which saw them play over 140 concerts in Europe, Australia, the United States and Mexico. They appeared at Glastonbury, Falls Music Festival and Southbound in 2014, Coachella, Wakarusa, Bonnaroo, Firefly, Glastonbury again, Lollapalooza, Osheaga and Reading and Leeds in 2015, and the Forecastle Festival in 2016.
How to Be a Human Being was simultaneously announced with the release of "Life Itself" and its respective music video. The foursome toured Australia for their second time, before they returned to North America for the album's release. Four days after the album was released, the band appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, their third appearance on primetime television.
The band wrote eleven songs based on eleven different characters, many of which were inspired by people they met and stories they were told during their travels while promoting Zaba. Each character was portrayed on the album cover, and some appeared in music videos for their respective songs.
The music of Glass Animals has a distinctive own sound. If a song works, that's a plus, but if not, it takes the surrounding tracks with it. Most of the material is at least ok, so no complaints from me. It results a good indie pop album with a concept that can be ignored if you are not into concepts (11 songs about 11 people as portraited on the cover).
This was in heavy rotation for me for several years after it came out. I love it and it's still and absolute jam.
Does it *deserve* to be on this list? Does one *need* to hear it before they die? IDK, the original list has like 15 Bruce Springsteen albums on it and then this fan-created list went ahead and added *several* more.
So sure.
Not my style. I'm too old to understand this new pop rock stuff. Indie is always hit or miss with me. This one just missed the mark. Similar to alt-J or OneRepublic. It sounds the same to me as the rest of the music being made today.
Favorite songs: Life Itself, Pork Soda, Poplar St
Least favorite songs: Season 2 Episode 3, [Premade Sandwiches], Mama's Gun
2/5
Entertaining album - I recall listening to Glass Animals years ago but didn’t recall hearing any of this album. I’d happily listen again to this and would not have regretted purchasing the CD back in the day.
This should be more up my alley but I just don't really enjoy it.
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 3/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
Decent indie pop with some interesting beats and large sound. Produced well and mostly enjoyable. Saw them live at NOS Alive 2025 in Lisbon, they were pretty cool live, but not really for me.
Heat Waves is one of the worst pop songs of the 2020s, but this was nearly half a decade earlier, so let's give it a fair shake here. Finished the album, and it really isn't anything special. Is it terrible? No, but it's awfully sterile, and none of its quirks feel genuine. There were some decent songs, but then it would throw in a weird part that just made the whole song clunky. Would rather not listen to this again, may make me dislike it more.
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