Album Review: Glass Animals - How To Be A Human Being

After a quality debut with 2014's Zaba, British four-piece Glass Animals have stomped the ground for their latest How To Be A Human Being with first single Life Itself doing the rounds this year. The catchy ditty has elevated the hype surrounding the indie kids once again, but does the album en masse live up to the talk?

Well, that depends which half you listen to. Aforementioned single Life Itself kicks things off and immediately there's an expectation of a solid spin ahead. While they certainly push the indie pop-rock envelope with breathy vocals in Pork Soda and some flute piping and percussive afro in Youth, it's not until midway that the interesting and the avant garde kick in. Their penchant for the percussive grows in the sinister Mama's Gun, the whimsical motifs and crunchy buzz augment Take A Slice, and the random smooth R&B beat and angular tweets and noises make The Other Side Of Paradise the highlight.

In important ways, yes, How To Be A Human Being lives up to expectations; musically there are a lot of interesting things going on throughout these 11 tracks, more so in the second half. But there's also something a bit restrained about the whole thing that really does give you the desire to hear more. Whether that's a ploy or just how these guys roll is an interesting question to ask, but an album should satisfy a listener during the actual act of listening, and perhaps not have them ask, "What else have you got?"