I recently got Bastille’s 2013 album Bad Blood (packaged with All This Bad Blood, which is mostly all different material and a topic for another day,) and I’ve been listening to it a lot. It’s been a while since I got a non-Broadway CD, and this was definitely a good one to go with. Here are my favorite songs from the album.
“Pompeii” – This is the first Bastille song I ever heard and the reason I’m now the proud owner of Bad Blood. (Incidentally, I first heard it on this fantastic In the Flesh fan video – incredibly apt.) Pompeii is such a great metaphor for a life that feels like it’s in shambles, and I love the idea the chorus brings through, that, “If you close your eyes / Does it almost feel like / Nothing’s changed at all?”
Best lyric: “We were caught up and lost in all of our vices / In your pose as the dust settled around us.”
“Bad Blood” – Great driving beat with a really cool groove. A lot of the songs on this album, it seems, are about people and relationships that are fractured in some way, and the title song fits that theme well. That said, many of the songs are also about the desire to heal and move on, a theme this song also displays quite handily.
Best lyric: “These are the days that bind you together, forever. / And these little things define you forever, forever.”
“Icarus” – The theme is self-destruction this time, no surprise based on the title. However, rather than going the usual route of dangerous ambition, the song is about more of a general downward spiral. As such, the metaphor is maybe a bit muddied, but I still love it. The galloping rhythm on the verses is fantastic, and I love the soaring lilt of the chorus.
Best lyric: “Living beyond your years, / Acting out all their fears. / You feel it in your chest.”
“Flaws” – I really love this one. Its insanely catchy melody aside, I like that it’s so much about resilience in the midst of struggle, recognizing how our flaws can help us grow and how we can help one another deal with them. The repeated line, “There’s a hole in my soul. / Can you fill it? / Can you fill it?” is so simple, yet so gorgeous.
Best lyric: “All of your flaws and all of my flaws, they lie there hand in hand. / Ones we’ve inherited, ones that we learn. / They pass from man to man.”
“Laura Palmer” – I’m amazed by how well this song captures the feel of the famous murdered girl from Twin Peakswithout going into many details from the show. I like that, rather than passing judgment on Laura’s choices, the song simply chronicles them. The eternal repetition is how, for better or worse, she always followed her “beating heart.”
Best lyric: “Walking out into the dark, / Cutting out a different path / Led by your beating heart.”
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