"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 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".
Dave Bayley, Paste
As with "Season 2 Episode 3", Glass Animals' "Pork Soda" offers up a kooky character sketch that involves psychological and interpersonal dysfunction. Against kaleidoscopic synths and massive drum beats, Bayley (presumably using the psychological insight he gained from his prior training as a neuroscientist) traces a personal narrative about a co-dependent love gone numb:
'Somewhere in Southend when you were funYou took my hand and you made me runUp past the prison to the seafrontYou climbed the cliff edge and took the plungeWhy 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
Somebody said I'm a fuckin' slumDon’t know where I belongMaybe you’re fucking dumbMaybe I’m just a bumMaybe you’re fucking scumDon’t you go psycho, chumI want you for the worldI want you all the timePineapples are in my head(Pineapples are in my head)Got nobody 'cause I’m brain-dead(Got nobody 'cause I’m brain-dead)Pineapples are in my head(Pineapples are in my head)Got nobody 'cause I’m brain-dead(Got nobody 'cause I’m brain-dead)Five thousand footsteps in your wet dressBack to the house with your arms around my neckWe drank pork soda with tangled legsI won’t forget how you looked at me then
I know I'm no sweet prince of loveThose times that we got drunkMaybe Jamaica rumMaybe some Jonnie DubMaybe you still think of usPhone buzz, and still I jumpWhy don't I say it then?I want you all the time'
Lyrics: Genius
This narrative remains open-ended, gaining momentum from the bouncy, carefree repetitions of 'Pineapples are in my head/ Got nobody 'cause I'm brain-dead'. The song's lyrics might dwell on love, life, death, loneliness, madness and sadness, but its sonic palette - and Bayley's breathy falsetto vocal delivery - is decidedly euphoric, lively, off-beat and somewhat hysterical. This duality is mirrored in the recently released music video, which depicts an elderly woman dancing with her dog and an old man going through the motions by channel-surfing through vibrant and colourful fake ads (starring the band members; the fictional infomercials can be viewed on the interactive Tumblr the band created for the song).
