'My girl eats mayonnaise/ From a jar when she's gettin' blazed'.
"Season 2 Episode 3" appears to be the lyrical successor to the 'peanut butter vibes' line from "Gooey", one of the better known tracks from Oxford quartet Glass Animals' debut album Zaba (2014). Some of the "opalescent weirdness and smirking, furry mischief" (George Sully, The Skinny) from their first record is still present, but as the title of their second album (How To Be A Human Being) indicates, this time the focus has shifted (slightly) to examining the modern human condition. Each track was inspired by life stories that frontman David Bayley (who happens to be a former neuroscientist) secretly recorded while on the band's two-year tour for Zaba - from fans, taxi drivers and random strangers.
As the track title suggests, "Season 2 Episode 3" is an electro-ballad to modern dysfunction - a character sketch of a stoner girlfriend who spends her life in front of screens (She's drunk on old cartoons/ Liquid TV afternoons) and is sustained by a minimal-effort diet ('Leftover breakfast, cereal for lunch'). The mundane lyrics are energized by their characteristically quirky sonic flair: jaunty little organ-plunks, a skittish hip hop beat, smooth hi-hat taps and retro video game blips.
Bayley has noted, however, that the "song has ideas and layers to it but it’s just kinda cheeky" (Lauren Ziegler, Howls and Echoes). Bayley alternates perspectives between some verses and the chorus, switching between a third person narration (from the boyfriend's perspective) and a first-person perspective (i.e. voicing the stoner girlfriend). And beneath all that apparent dysfunction and uselessness, there is a twist - an unexpectedly independent personality:
'Don't you need meYou baby boyCause I'm so happyWithout your noise'
Lyrics: Genius
