Pork Soda

“Pork Soda” is the 4th track off UK indie/alternative band Glass Animals’ last album in 2016, “How to Be a Human Being”. The song was written by Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley.

The song has a catchy, upbeat and twangy tune, with insanely unforgettable chorus of the lines: “Pineapples are in my head/Got nobody ’cause I’m brain-dead”. Bayley told Paste Magazine about the origin of the chorus:

“I heard a homeless man talking to someone once and say, ‘pineapples are in my head’. In retrospect, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t actually those words, but I thought it was at the time, and it kind of stuck with me.”

The song opens with Bayley reminiscing about the beginning of a relationship when his other half used to be fun, like when they ran off a cliff edge into a sea. In the pre-chorus, Bayley asks his other half: “Why can’t we laugh now like we did then?/ How come I see you and ache instead?/How come you only look pleased in bed?/ Let’s climb the cliff edge and jump again”. The pre-chorus sets the tone of the song, showing the audience that the track is about a lover in a relationship that is no longer what it used to be, and asking their lover why that’s the case. The second verse is a lot angrier, with Bayley saying that someone called him “f**king scum”, but they’re dumb, or maybe he is just a bum. This verse deals with more of an identity crisis rather than a relationship crisis. It all comes to a head at the bridge, where Bayley is nostalgic about the good times in him and his other half’s relationship. “Five thousand footsteps in your white dress/Back to the house with your arms around my neck/ We drank pork soda with tangled legs/ I won’t forget how you looked at me then”. The namesake of the song comes from the bridge: Pork Soda. “Maybe you still think of us/ Phone buzz, and still I jump/ Why don’t I say it then?/ I want you all the time”. This insinuates that the relationship has ended or is at its end, and that despite all their hard times, Bayley still wants this individual in their life, and he still gets excited when he hears his phone buzz, hoping its her.

In terms of the musical aspects of the track, Bayley also discussed their process with Paste Magazine. “The opening of the song is meant to sound like you’re outside on the street, and you can hear a group of people chanting this song. The drum sounds are made from old bins and trash pieces of metal I found around the studio. Kind of like those street drummers use. All that is meant to set the scene for the story.”

There is no director credited for the music video, it but follows the story of two neighbours who live one above the other and one below. The neighbour above is an elderly woman with a very pink and highly decorated apartment and a dog, and the neighbour below is a man in a very empty basement like room. Their common link is the same microwave meal they eat, and the fact that they both watch TV. They video ends with man below banging on the ceiling and shooting arrows through the floor to the elderly lady to make her turn down her music (she’s playing the Pork Soda track). It has amassed almost 3 million views.

Release Date: 26th August 2016

Songwriter/s: Dave Bayley

Song length: 4:14

Album: How To Be A Human Being (2016)

Record Label/s: Caroline Records, Harvest Records

Music Video Release Date: 7th March 2017

Music Video Director: N/A

Chart Rankings: The album as a whole was extremely successful, with it reaching #23 in the UK Albums charts, #20 in the US Billboard 200, #11 in the Australian Albums, as well as #50 in the Billboard Albums in Canada.