Artist: Bastille
Title: Bad Blood
Genre: Indie, Pop, Electro
Release Date: 4th March 2013
Label: Virgin
Album Review
The opening bars of the first track, ‘Pompeii’ sound like ENYA, before it goes all electro-indie. Which is how you’d reasonably describe BASTILLE’s sound. They chuck it all in there: marching drums, choral sections and cliché lyrics that are clearly penned for mass accessibility. “The walls kept tumbling down”. And herein lies the first obstacle to my enjoyment of the album. It feels like they’re trying just that bit too hard to reach everyone. ‘Things We Lost in the Fire’ is vaguely reminiscent of WHITE LIES, and should be poignant, but the emotion’s drained by the super-slick production (an accusation that could also be levelled at WHITE LIES, of course). It’s perhaps telling that the press release notes that “BASTILLE’s music is always the product of Smith and the band’s ‘fifth member’, producer Mark Crew”.
The title track appropriates stylistic elements from THE POLICE and at the same time captures the essence of myriad AOR bands from the mid 98s, at least musically, and there’s more than a hint of A-HA about ‘Overjoyed’, and as the album progresses, so it’s derivativeness becomes apparent. The tribal / marching drum breaks become all too predictable, and the treatment of some of the album’s darker subject matter such as the cautionary tale of ‘Icarus’ is clumsy and unconvincing. Still, positioned curiously late in the track list, single ‘Laura Palmer’ is well-crafted, well-executed and uplifting, and it’s easy enough to understand BASTILLE’s popularity, and UK tour supporting TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB hasn’t exactly damaged their reputation
Dan Smith has a decent voice, and the songs in themselves are well conceived. Moreover, Smith’s clearly got a keen sense of the anthemic and his capacity to reference film and literature is as impressive as his ability to draw on a range of musical touchstones while presenting a cohesive album. It just lacks that all-important soul.
Tracklist
01. Pompeii
02. Things We Lost In The Fire
03. Bad Blood
04. Overjoyed
05. These Streets
06. Weight of Living, PT.II
07. Icarus
08. Oblivion
09. Flaws
10. Daniel in the Den
11. Laura Palmer
12. Get Home
Line-up
Dan Smith – Vocals, instruments
Will Farquarson – Bass
Kyle Simmons – Keyboards
Chris 'Woody' Wood – Drums
Website
http://bastillebastille.com/
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 5
Total: 6 / 10
