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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/34446795_10155207802036152_480297705856303104_o.jpg]]
2 [[caption-width-right:350:''Cut back down to my knees, gotta get back, gotta get free.'']]
3
4[[https://www.glassanimals.com/ Glass Animals]] are a Indie {{TripHop}} Band from Oxford, England that formed in 2012. They are made of friends vocalist Dave Bayley, guitarist Drew Macfarlane, bassist Edmund Irvin-Singer and drummer Joe Seaward.
5
6They've made three albums to date: ''ZABA'' in June 2014, ''How to Be a Human Being'' in August 2016, and ''Dreamland'' in August 2020. They are most known for the songs ''Black Mambo,'' ''Gooey,'' ''Life Itself,'' ''Pork Soda'', ''Youth,'' ''Your Love (Deja Vu)'', and ''Heat Waves''. They were nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2017 for ''How to Be a Human Being''.
7
8Not to be confused with Canadian rock band Glass Tiger.
9
10Discography:
11* ''Leaflings'' (EP, 2012)
12* ''Glass Animals'' (EP, 2013)
13* ''ZABA'' (2014)
14* ''How to Be a Human Being'' (2016)
15* ''Dreamland'' (2020)
16----
17!![[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife "Baby, don't go. I'll stop making tropes."]]
18* AlbumIntroTrack: The title track on ''Dreamland'' is a mashup of this, a "table of contents" and a SettingIntroductionSong: each verse asks a question that is answered elsewhere in the album, and it ends with:
19-->''"Oh, it's 2020, so it's time to change that''\
20''So you go make an album and call it Dreamland"''
21* TheAlcoholic: "Hazey" deals with a man shielding his daughter from his drunken wife.
22* AllThereInTheManual: All of the characters in ''How To Be A Human Being'' have backstories you won't notice in the songs themselves.
23* AgeProgressionSong: "Youth" follows the waitress's son as she watches him grow up [[MissingMom without her]].
24* AgeGapRomance: The protagonist in "Poplar St." thinks he's in this.
25* TheAggressiveDrugDealer: The "Cane Shuga" character is described as a "drug dealer for the elite" and businessmen.
26* AnimalMotifs: In the album ''ZABA,'' several characters are described as fitting animals.
27** The narrator refers to the subject of "Gooey" as "[[Literature/WinnieThePooh Pooh Bear]]" to signify their [[ManChild childishness and naivety]].
28** "Black Mambo" is about "Mr. Mole" as he faces off against "The Sloth" in an intense game of dominoes.
29** "Cocoa Hooves" is about a elderly man, described as an "old goat". He is unable to escape out of his comfort zone due to an implied heart surgery in the lyrics.
30* {{Anthology}}: ''HTBAHB'' is this [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace in audio.]]
31* AWildRapperAppears:
32** Joey Bada$$ appears on the non-album single "Lose Control".
33** In ''Dreamland'', Denzel Curry features on "Tokyo Drifting".
34* BarbieDollAnatomy: In the SurrealMusicVideo for "Space Ghost Coast To Coast", the dozens of naked men dancing throughout the city have no visible gonads.
35* BasementDweller: Chuck Rogers, the protagonist of "Life Itself", still lives with his mom due to his inability to find a job coupled with clinging to having been told he'd grow up to be special in the past.
36* BSODSong: From ''How To Be A Human Being'': the protagonists of both "Cane Shuga" and "The Other Side of Paradise" despair being left by their respective lovers, the former's breakup having occurred over his drug abuse and the latter's resulting in a suicide attempt.
37* BreakingSpeech: "It's All So Incredibly Loud" according to WordOfGod
38* BreakupSong: "Cane Shuga" is about the businessman having broken up with his girlfriend because of his cocaine abuse. Said girlfriend is the girl from "Season 2, Episode 3", [[{{Irony}} who he described ruefully in that song as a "broken" and incorrigible stoner and who he accuses of "burn[ing] through [his] love, just like [her] drugs".]]
39* CharacterBlog: The cast of ''HTBAHB'' have ones that [[StylisticSuck resemble the likes of GeoCities and Myspace pages]].
40* ChessWithDeath: The titular "Black Mambo". But [[JustForFun/RecycledInSpace with dominoes]].
41* ConceptAlbum: Both ''ZABA'' and ''How To Be A Human Being''. The former is inspired by the children's book ''The Zabajaba Jungle'', while the latter consists of songs written about characters the band met and stories they heard in the process of making, promoting and touring to promote ''ZABA''.
42* ConceptVideo: ''Youth,'' ''Life Itself,'' and ''Season 2 Episode 3'' For How to Be a Human Being
43** ''Dreamland,'' ''Tokyo Drifting,'' ''Tangerine,'' ''Heat Waves'' and ''It's all So Incredibly Loud''
44* CoverVersion: [[Music/KanyeWest Love Lockdown]] at the end of ''ZABA''.
45* ConnectedAllAlong: In the music videos and [[AllThereInTheManual "back-matter material."]] The drug dealer from "Cane Shuga" is the boyfriend of the subject in "Season 2, Episode 3"'s video, and Mrs. Moore from "Poplar St." kidnaps a boy whose mother is the waitress from "Youth". "Life Itself"'s video includes most of these characters, including the subject character and his mother, who is in turn the subject of "Mama's Gun".
46* DesignStudentsOrgasm: All of their album covers to date.
47** ''ZABA'' has artist Micah Lidberg draw a man and woman sleeping away from each other, among animals in a strange, jungle-like enviroment, fitting the albums's "setting" and themes.
48** ''How To Be A Human Being'' by Neil Krug has a [[TheSeventies very 70s-style aesthetic]] and an ''awkward family photo'' of a diverse group of people, each one a subject of the albums songs, respectively.
49** ''Dreamland'''s is heavily influenced by {{Vaporwave}} and Seapunk art, depicting Dave Bayley's head in their art styles.
50* DomesticAbuse: ''Domestic Bliss''
51* DownerEnding: ''How To Be A Human Being'' ends with "Agnes", about a [[GenderBlenderName man]] [[UncertainDoom possibly dying]] of a drug overdose.
52* DrugsAreBad:
53** On ''ZABA'', "Walla Walla" is a song to a drug addict from the point of view ''of his addiction'', taking advantage of his frightened and depressed state after he's come down from his high to tell him to come to it for consolation; while "Hazey" is from the point of view of a spouse whose partner is an abusive alcoholic.
54** On ''How To Be A Human Being'', the central characters of "Life Itself", "Season 2, Episode 3", "Cane Shuga", and the [[DownerEnding aforementioned]] "Agnes" each have issues with substance abuse. The first describes himself passing out in public while downing lean, the second spends all day getting baked to the point where she uncaringly eats mayo straight out of the jar, the third is a cocaine addict and dealer, and the fourth has fallen into issues with multiple drugs that may have led to his death.
55* ExtremelyShortTimespan: "It's All So Incredibly Loud". Dave Bayley has said it takes place in the three seconds.
56* FaceOnTheCover: A 3D model of Dave Bayley's face appears on the cover of ''Dreamland'' and its singles.
57* GenderBlenderName: The eponymous character of "Agnes" is the man holding the camera in the ''How To Be Human Being'' album cover.
58* GrowingUpSucks: It appears to be a CentralTheme in ''How To Be A Human Being.'' "Youth" is about being a parent unable to see your child grow up, "Life Itself" is about a stagnant young adult frittering his days away as an unemployed BasementDweller and misfit after having been told he'd grow up to be special, "Pork Soda" is about [[ScatterBrainedSenior an old man getting dementia]], "The Other Side Of Paradise" is about [[TheOneThatGotAway a woman's doomed relationship with a now famous basketball player]], "Take A Slice" is about a young woman prostituting herself to pay for college, and "Agnes" is about losing your friend to time while seeing him fall into drug addiction and poor mental health. [[SarcasmMode Fun stuff.]]
59* ItsSnowingCocaine: In "Cane Shuga", the narrator describes his consumption of the drug as not merely snorting it, but ''breathing'' it.
60* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: "Heat Waves".
61-->"You can't fight it, you can't breathe\
62You say somethin' so lovin', but\
63Now I gotta let you go\
64You'll be better off in someone new\
65I don't wanna be alone\
66You know it hurts me too"
67* IWantSong: "Youth", from a parent's perspective.
68-->''"I want you to be happy''\
69''Free to run, get dizzy on caffeine''\
70''Funny friends that make you laugh''\
71''And maybe you're just a little bit dappy"''
72* LighterAndSofter: [[SubvertedTrope Subverted.]] On the whole, the soundscape of ''How To Be A Human Being'' isn't anywhere near as dark and moody as that of ''ZABA'' - but lyrically, it's just as apt to dive into dark themes, and often does so even more bluntly.
73* LyricalDissonance: A recurring theme in ''How To Be A Human Being''.
74** "Take a Slice": A cheerful, groovy indie-pop song about a college-aged [[OnlyInFlorida Florida-bound]] prostitute who's turning to the line of work to pay for her tuition.
75** "Life Itself" is oddly up-tempo for a song about a strange outcast trying to [[AllOfTheOtherReindeer fit in with]] society.
76** "Season 2, Episode 3" is a smooth bedroom-pop song about an extremely [[TheStoner lazy stoner]] whose ways are portrayed not as "endearingly chill" so much as "concerning and alienating".
77** ''Dreamland'''s title track vaguely alludes to a [[AxesAtSchool school shooting]], {{foreshadowing}} ''Space Ghost Coast to Coast''.
78* ManicPixieDreamGirl: [[DeconstructedTrope Deconstructed]] in "Season 2, Episode 3". The "Cane Suga" guy laments that his girlfriend is "broken, but she's fun".
79* MurderBallad: In "Mama's Gun", the singer, who is suffering from schizophrenia, murders her husband at the behest of auditory hallucinations.
80* {{NEET}}: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] in "Life Itself". Chuck lives with his mother because he can't get a job, but he laments taking a small amount of her money.
81* OldFlameFizzle: In "The Other Side of Paradise", the narrator's boyfriend leaves for Hollywood to become a basketball player who falls in love with someone else, [[TheOneThatGotAway much to her chagrin]].
82* RightOnQueue: "[Premade Sandwiches]" describes people standing in an assortment of lines in illustration of the routine nature of modern city life.
83* {{Sampling}}: "Mama's Gun" samples "Mr. Gruder", originally made by Music/TheCarpenters.
84* ScatterbrainedSenior: The narrator and his wife in "Pork Soda" are suffering from Alzheimer's, hence the "pineapples are in my head" lyric.
85* ShoutOut:
86** ''ZABA'''s title is inspired by William Steig's children's book, "The Zabajaba Jungle".
87** Take a wild guess what "Space Ghost Coast to Coast" is named after.
88** "Toes" is centered around an [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau island full human-animal hybrids]]. The song also mentions a "Dr. Swango" the singer hallucinates. He is named after the real-life [[DeadlyDoctor Dr. Michael Swango]], who killed 4 to 60 people with [[BitterAlmonds arsenic.]]
89* TheStoner: The girl in "Season 2, Episode 3" is sung to have eaten cereal for lunch and [[BreadEggsMilkSquick a jar of mayo with a spoon]] while high on weed.
90* SpokenWordInMusic: In "[Premade Sandwiches]", a [[CreepyMonotone voice]] rapid-fire raps about people in New York [[RightOnQueue standing in line for]] superfood, drugs, luxury and sex, not unlike Music/OkComputer.
91* StylisticSuck: Some pages of the band's website resemble Platform/{{Geocities}} and Platform/{{Myspace}} pages.
92* UsedToBeASweetKid: The [[AxesAtSchool school shooter]] in "Space Ghost Coast to Coast".
93* TheVamp: [[ReallyGetsAround Mrs. Moore]] in "Poplar St." seduces young men like the protagonist, only to leave him for another lover.
94* WholeEpisodeFlashback: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed.]] ''Dreamland'' takes most of its inspiration from Dave Bayley's past.
95* WorldBuilding: The band has made moodboards for their albums, and centered their second, ''How to Be a Human Being'', on a [[CrowdedCastShot cast of characters]] with backstories that extend beyond the content of the songs that represent them.

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