Bastille Bad Blood album cover

Every now and then a band comes along who are branded “the next big thing”, and Bastille was the band slapped with these buzz words at the end of last year.

Lead singer Dan Smith – who is also the producer and sole songwriter – established Bastille  as a solo project,  but soon decided on recruiting Chris Wood, Will Farquarson and Kyle Simmons to create one of the best new quartets the music industry has seen across the past 5 years.

Bastille have released many-a-teaser track over the two years of their existence, most of which have made it onto their debut album entitled Bad Blood. Many longitudinal fans will notice the added flourishes of strings and choirs on early tracks such as ‘Icarus’ and ‘Laura Palmer’. The same goes for one of the oldest tracks on the album,’Things We Lost in the Fire” which has been jazzed up without losing the DIY dance feel that attracted early members of their ever-expanding fanbase.

Recent chart track ‘Pompeii’ opens the narrative on Bad Blood. With monk-like chanting at the start, the track ultimately builds into a frantic and blissful chorus of “eh-ohs” that hook’s the attention of its listeners. Meanwhile new songs like ‘These Streets’ and ‘The Weight of Living Pt. II’ provide evidence that Bastille will definitely be bringing the summer vibe with them to this year’s festivals.

Overall, it is nice to hear clean cut vocals, original chorus’ and synth within Bastille’s music. In fact, a lot of the instrumentation is quite clever and fresh-feeling, unlike the current chart which is swamped in auto-tuned vocals and joyless EDM synths.

If Bastille can push on from this debut album and come back with something even better next time, then there is no doubt that they will be playing bigger and better gigs throughout the course of their career. Some people might criticise the LP for being too polished for a debut release, but with addictive melodies, humble lyrics and a cohesive sound, Bastille are a band where the buzz words like “one to watch” and “next big thing” couldn’t be more true.

4 stars ★★★