Album Review: Bastille – Bad Blood

If you haven’t heard of Bastille then you must have been living under a rock for the last six months. His music has literally been everywhere. The debut single, ‘Flaws’ was released back in 2011 and received a much welcomed reception from a bunch of new listeners, and over time he’s successfully littered YouTube with covers ranging from City High (What Would You Do?) to Corona (Rhythm Of The Night) and Fleetwood Mac (Dreams) to Bruno Mars (Locked Out Of Heaven). But even if you haven’t heard any of his music, it’s likely that you will have seen Dan, the man behind the music, prancing around some festival sporting a ridiculous floppy haircut. But now, after a couple of free teaser EPs, Bastille are on the verge of a major success story with this album. But is it any good?

Pompeii kicks ‘Bad Blood’ off to a good start. It’s one of the finer tracks on the record despite the intro sounding like something from the Lion King Musical. Which just goes to show the range of diverse sounds squeezed on to ‘Bad Blood’. There’s clearly a wide influence present. However the album has some truly clichéd lyrics, the low point being, ‘Icarus’. “Icarus is flying too close to the sun/And Icarus’ life it has only just begun/And this is how it feels to take a fall/Icarus is flying towards an early grave”, announces Dan amongst a rigid beating of drums. It just doesn’t sit well.

A surprise appearance from ‘Laura Palmer’, the murdered girl from David Lynch’s brilliantly bizarre television series Twin Peaks, sounds far too flowery considering its name, but I guess that sums up the album. It’s not exactly an intellectually challenging listen. Once you see past the high production value you’ll realise it’s just a polished off pop record presented in a dark and mysterious manner. There are moments that shine, but on the whole it’s just a couple of hit singles accompanied by a few album fillers.

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