'All This Bad Blood' by Bastille - Album Review


As the title of this blog probably shows, I am a huge fan of Bastille and their music.  I've seen them far too many times, listen to their music much too often, and I dread to think how much time I've wasted watching interviews with them.  Needless to say, when I heard that they would be releasing a new-ish album at the end of November, I was very excited.  Although I do love them regardless, I always feel like a band or artist is cheating when they re-release an old album with a couple of new songs on it.  However as Bastille are so great, I'm willing to forgive them.

I discovered Bastille's music around May last year, and it's been surreal to watch them become so successful.  Following the release of  'Pompeii' (the one with the eh-ohs), the London quartet's debut album 'Bad Blood' went straight to number 1 in the UK charts earlier this year, and was also very well received in the US.  For the new fans of Bastille, the latest album, 'All This Bad Blood' provides the opportunity to hear the first album along with some new songs.  The two disc album has been described by frontman, Dan Smith as "a complete representation of what we have done so far".  And it is exactly that.

The first disc of the album has an identical track-list to the originally released debut album, featuring the acclaimed singles, 'Pompeii', 'Laura Palmer', 'Flaws', 'Thing We Lost In The Fire' and the title track of the album, 'Bad Blood'.  Further proof that I'm a big fan of the band is the fact that I knew all of the songs on this disc before the original album was even released back in March.  How embarrassing.

The second disc of the album is something which older fans will be more excited about.  Last year, Bastille released two cover mixtapes known as 'Other People's Heartache' and 'Other People's Heartache Part II'.  The mixtapes were free to download, and featured covers and mash-ups of classic 90s songs such as 'No Scrubs' by TLC and 'What Would You Do?' by City High.  Sadly, the mixtapes were taken down due to copyright issues, but I'm sure they're still lurking somewhere in the depths of the internet for you to get your hands on.  Most people are now aware of Bastille's cover of 'Of The Night' (A mash-up of 'Rhythm Is A Dancer' and 'Rhythm Of The Night'), which was originally featured on the first part of 'Other People's Heartache'.  However it was released as the band's most recent single and narrowly missed out on being number 1 in the charts.  Aside from two of their covers being on the second disc of the album, they have also included all of the B-sides from previously released EPs, plus songs that were available on the deluxe edition of the 'Bad Blood' album.  

And the most exciting part of the album; two new songs.  'Skulls' and 'The Draw' were recently written and recorded by the band and certainly don't disappoint.  Both very different from any of the band's previous songs, they have finally decided to use guitars, something which wasn't there on the first album.  I was fortunate enough to see them perform 'The Draw' live at one of their dates at Brixton Academy in October, and they seemed to be very relieved and excited to finally be playing some new material.  'Skulls' is my personal favourite, and uses various warping effects and stunning layered acapellas.

Overall, 'All This Bad Blood' is an ideal album for both the new and old fans of Bastille.  Featuring the singles that have been so successful, and new songs for those who have worn their 'Bad Blood' CD out, I can assure that you will not be disappointed with the new LP.  I know that I definitely wasn't.

'All This Bad Blood' is available to download from iTunes now

Comments

  1. jackgumbrell30 December 2013 at 14:21

    During the maudlin quietude of ‘Pompeii’ , a tiny inkling of pity emerges in your sickened soul, and you convince yourself the band from London is full a poor, misguided wannabes who’s fallen into the hands of the music industry equivalent of Hungarian sex traffickers. . I wish I could say there’s a place in Hell reserved for Bastille. There’s not. They don't deserve it. They’ll be all over 2013 like a virulent dose of musical syphilis, and be warned, you can’t unhear it.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Arctic Monkeys - iTunes Festival 2013

Image
On Monday 9th September, I was lucky enough to be able to see one of my favourite bands, Arctic Monkeys, at iTunes Festival. For those of you who don't know/understand what iTunes Festival is, it's a month long 'festival' that runs throughout the whole of September with different artists playing each night.  And the best part is that it's completely free!  The only problem is that the chances of actually winning tickets is very slim, but somehow my friend did and was kind enough to take me. Arriving at the Roundhouse much earlier than we needed to, we managed to get to the barrier, which made us very very excited.  Neither of us have seen AM live before, so knowing that we would also be incredibly close to them made it all the better.  Up and coming band Drenge, who I hadn't heard of before, were playing the support slot.  Personally, I really didn't like their set.  They seemed to spend the majority of their time on stage staring at each rather...
Read more

Track of the Week - 08/04/16

Image
This week's track comes from British electronic artist Bibio and is taken from his seventh studio album, 'A Mineral Love', released earlier this month.  If you haven't heard of him before, then you'd probably recognise Bibio's 2009 track 'Lover's Carvings', which has been featured in the background of several adverts. The chosen track 'Town & Country' is wonderfully uplifting and has an almost jazz-like feel to it with the instruments that he uses.  It discusses the idea of working hard in the city for your money and how rapidly (and somewhat annoyingly) that you manage to spend it all.  Think most of us can relate to that problem. Despite talking about a somewhat disheartening topic, the promise of the countryside is what allows this song to retain its positive and summer appropriate vibe.  The contrast between the hustle and bustle of big cities and towns with the dream-like country makes this track ideal to listen to at th...
Read more

Track of the Week - 15/09/16

Image
Can't believe that somehow nearly two months have managed to go by since I wrote my last post. But so many exciting things have been happening in music - which shamefully I have neglected to write about.  So I'm going to attempt to get back into the routine of my weekly track posts. This week's choice comes from British singer-songwriter Izzy Bizu's debut album, 'A Moment of Madness', which was released a couple of weeks ago.  I've really enjoyed all of the stuff that Izzy released prior to the LP - she's collaborated with one of my favourite bands, HONNE, and was also the voice of the BBC Euro 2016 theme tune. She has a really beautiful and smooth voice, a cross between the likes of Amy Winehouse and Corinne Bailey Rae. The album as a whole is full of super catchy and jazz-like tracks (such as "Naive Soul") mixed with more soulful, slower songs (like "What Makes You Happy"), but 'Skinny' is definitely the stand-out o...
Read more