Glass Animals have released their second new track from forthcoming album How To Be A Human Being, with the release of new track and video, Youth. The band previously released Life Itself, the clip of which starred a young boy who escapes after being kept hostage. In their video for Youth, the little boy is back as the story continues to unfold.
This video focuses on helping us piece together the relationship between the boy and the waitress at the diner. As she works, we continuously sees the boy either dancing to the upbeat track or simply watching her. She follows him when he runs out of the diner, going to the room from where he escaped and searching about the area. The band make a cameo in the video as patrons sitting in a booth, completely oblivious to what’s going on. We assume this means the visions of the boy are simply inside the waitress’s head, which tells us that the video must be viewed with an open mind and a bit of imagination.
According to NPR, the band’s frontman Dave Bayley agrees, allowing the viewer to leave it to themselves to figure out their own meaning. “I always try to leave enough space for people to make their own interpretations,” he says. “For me, that’s more interesting than having a definitive ‘correct’ explanation.”
Although, he also gave a little explanation about the heartbreaking story about a woman and her son that inspired the song. “It was one of the saddest things I’d ever heard, and she was on the verge of crying,” he says, “but she also had a sense of optimism and calm. Something in her face said she’d found a way to be happy again.”
Considering the album is said to be composed of songs largely written from the perspectives of unique individual characters, to have an ongoing storyline introducing us to each visually is remarkably interesting. Bayley has explained that while many of the stories stemmed from conversations he’s had with people met on Glass Animals’ extensive world tours, many of the details are fictitious.
“People tell you some incredible things — some totally deep, dark secrets — with a sort of cheekiness to it. They’re laughing as they’re telling you these dark, or sad, or really gross things. And even if they’re telling you a happy story, you can sense the emotion underneath that,” he said.
How To Be A Human Being will be available on August 26. Watch the video for Youth below.
Read our recent review of Glass Animals live, and check out our photo gallery here.
Image: Danielle Hansen / Howl & Echoes