Here's another article I wrote last year for KKBox. While the review may have been slightly more positive than was warranted, I'd still stay the album is slightly better than average pop rock, and "Pompeii" in particular is a memorable song.
Bastille, a British band who has recently shot to the top of the UK charts with an album that melds indie rock with synthpop, was founded by lead vocalist and keyboardist Dan Smith in 2010. Smith, who grew up listening to artists like the Beach Boys and Simon & Garfunkel and admires singer-songwriters like Regina Spektor and Kate Bush, started Bastille as a solo project featuring his songs, but then recruited bassist Will Farquarson, drummer Chris Wood and keyboardist Kyle Simmons to turn it into a band. In 2011, the band released several songs that would later appear on their debut album on independent labels. After signing with Virgin Records, they released their first major label single “Overjoyed” in April 2012, followed by “Bad Blood” and “Flaws”. Each song was a bigger success than the one before, and their fourth single, “Pompeii”, was a huge hit when it was released in late February of this year. When their debut album, Bad Blood, was released a week later, it went straight to the top of the UK charts, making Bastille the hottest new band in Britain, much to their own surprise.
Smith’s songs have a melancholy, even at times apocalyptic, feel and yet are crowd-pleasing and anthemic at the same time. Though Bastille’s music has an indie rock sound, there are no guitars on Bad Blood. Other than bass, drums and keyboards, the atmospheric music is entirely generated by synths and percussion. Smith, who has attracted comment for his gravity-defying hair as well as his singing and songwriting, provides appealing vocals backed by great harmonies from the band, with minimal use of the vocal effects that are heard on so many pop songs today. He is also notable for avoiding straightforward love songs. His songs feature literary and historical allusions instead of the autobiographical references seen in the work of most singer-songwriters (even the group name is a historical allusion, to the storming of the Bastille that kicked off the French Revolution – July 14, the date on which it occurred, happens to be Smith’s birthday). Musically, listeners may be reminded of groups like Coldplay, but Bastille manages to create its own distinct sound.
The album opens with the powerful “Pompeii”, which imagines a conversation between two people caught in the destruction of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii, which was buried by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius nearly two millennia ago. “Things We Lost in the Fire” takes the viewpoint of someone whose home and possessions have been destroyed. The title track “Bad Blood” tells of a friendship gone bad, and the ballad “Oblivion” is lovely but dark. “Flaws”, the album’s second biggest hit after “Pompeii”, is more upbeat, but as its title indicates, it still focuses on people’s inevitable weaknesses. Another classical allusion is found in the haunting “Icarus”, where Smith uses the Greek myth as a metaphor for alcohol abuse. More literary and cultural references are found in “Daniel in the Den” and “Laura Palmer”, which take their titles from the Biblical tale and the Twin Peaks character respectively. The two part “Weight of Living” talks about the pressures of everyday life and features a chorus reminiscent of “Alive and Kicking” by the 1980s group Simple Minds.
All in all, Bastille has come up with an impressive debut for a band that didn’t even exist a few years ago. It isn’t perfect; though the lyrical themes are interesting, some of the lyrics are somewhat repetitive or slightly banal. Bastille’s music doesn’t have quite the variety of that of a group like Muse, who they are currently touring with. Nevertheless, Bastille stands out from the average artist on the charts and while the fairly introverted Dan Smith may be a reluctant star, Bad Blood shows that he possess genuine talent and is at least as deserving of stardom as the vast majority of pop artists.
