Micah’s Take on Bad Blood

Bastille may be a young band, but the darkness is already with them. Four of its songs are titled after doomed heroes from our culture, both ancient and modern – Icarus, Daniel (of the eponymous Bible book), Laura Palmer (from David Lynch’s “Twin Peaks”), and the doomed men and women of Pompeii. All these people are men and women who dared to believe in blind love and the sort of fast life that, say, Ke$ha favors, and they all had terrible fates befall them. A song titled “Oblivion” is about the paradox of graceful aging, going quietly towards an inevitable obliteration. This is, indeed, heavy music.
All that, though, avoids the central truth about Bastille – behind all the motifs of existentialism, they’re a pretty mediocre synth-pop group. With a few notable exceptions – “These Streets” and “Pompeii” chief amongst them – they rely almost entirely on the same few pop clichés that have carried countless songwriters through album after album after album. After three or four tracks, you get hopelessly sick of the inevitable penultimate chorus sung over slightly off-beat piano chords playing the melody, and when the Mumford-esque backup singers come in, violent urges may begin to emerge in your brain. Oh, but for songs that could support these themes! Oh, but for a pianist who knows more than one chord progression!
Occasionally, though, the formula works. As I listened to “Pompeii”, even I, the ever-jaded, couldn’t suppress the joy that these simple musical structures brought.
Vampire Weekend came into the music world with incredible songwriting chops and not a theme worth mentioning. This year, they released what I’d call the year’s best album, thematically and musically. One can only hope that Bastille will follow the same formula, working backwards.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Will’s Take on Bad Blood

The album features bits and pieces of all sorts of bands. Songs like “Things We Lost In The Fire,” “Bad Blood,” and “Get Home” bring to mind Imogen Heap, Dido, and other electronic friendly singer-songwriters. “Pompeii” and “These Streets” sent me off on a tangent listening session of  “Empire of the Sun.” “Get Home” or “Oblivion” might remind you of more traditional Brit-Pop such as Coldplay and Keane with the chord progressions and swelling melodies that sweep you up and carry you along in the music.

Frontman Dan Smith has a great ear for putting together dynamics, beats, and effects to create a wonderful pop-rock experience. The group is primarily synth driven, and holds true to the synth pop we’ve all grown accustomed to in recent years. The album manages to seem upbeat, even in the midst of tragic and depressing songs (see Icarus, Pompeii and Overjoyed*).  Smith’s delivery of depressing, yet somehow hopeful lines (i.e. “And the walls kept tumbling down, in the city that we love. Grey clouds roll over the hills, bringing darkness from above”) end up as a quote that  you might write for the caption on a black and white, looking-over-a-lake-because-I’m-artzy, Facebook profile picture.

I sincerely look forward to Bastille’s next release. Bad Blood shows an incredible amount of potential, that, with a little exploration, could blossom into a great new group. If they can break the mold of your common pop song with their sophomore release, I think we’ll have a huge group on our hands.

If you were going to buy 3 songs, i’d get “Pompeii”, “Flaws”, and “Things We Lost In The Fire” (in that order).

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

*Spoiler alert: he’s not overjoyed

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xoxo-
Your Snobby Music Lovers,

Micah and Will