Bastille's Wild World Album Review: Part I
So the "hello I'm back" made no affect on me actually posting ever again... But I'm back again, to finally post something I have been waiting to post for a very long time! I love writing about the music I love and I love doing my little album review things. The reason it has taken so long for me to get this post up is because it took me so long to wrap my head around the album. I couldn't talk about it because I wouldn't know how to put my thoughts into words, it's a complex and very dimensional album, which is what Dan (lead singer) wanted, and it's so good! I love nothing more than picking through songs and getting a deeper understanding of what they're about - especially songs with happy music but depressing lyrics. So I've been listening to the album on constant repeat and I feel like I've finally decoded the songs enough to have a good ol chinwag about them.
So the album is called "Wild World" and has a consistent theme of things that happen in the world really, it's about just how screwed up the world really is, how important people are, people's behaviors such as corruptness, kindness, gangster-ism... The album talks about issues that are very close to my heart, and in the exact same way I see them/talk about them. Dan's not singing particularly about politics and saying "this person is doing this and that person has f*cked up doing that" it's just a kind of "have you seen what's going on the world, how mental" and I really love this theme on the album because it's so refreshing to see people write songs that mean something, songs that are relevant and talk about the world. Nothing to do with sex or a wild night out.. and I really love that.
Right so here we go.
1, Good Grief.
This song was released as a single and came with a very confusing music video which I also think I've decoded (to my interpretation). It's upbeat as an intro song should be, it's depressing.. as a Bastille song should be.. The song is one long, emotional, in-depth description on what grief can feel like. I love the "call me a fool, put me in my place" bit so much because it's like you're so desperate for this person and it makes you so emotional.
My theory for the music video is pretty basic, the start of it shows things that happen in everyday life, runners in a park, people winning things on TV, etc.. then angry teddy bears are running in the park and all the scenes are getting muddled up, people aren't where they're supposed to be and I think it represents that when you lose someone your whole world gets turned upside down and nothing is normal, everything is out of place etc. I also think the video is a visual representation of the album in the way that runners run in a park, robbers rob banks, competition winners are on TV, everyone has their slot in the world and there are invisible lines between everyone's lifestyle that splits them apart from each other, and the message in the video is that as a whole, as a community, people are so distant from each other these days. The guys you see run in the park every single day are a part of your life but they always remain strangers, a sense of community isn't part of today's lifestyle (at least not in the UK).
2, The Currents.
This second song is one of the more upbeat ones, it's one that plays live really well. The whole album's theme is kind of shaped in this song. It's about *someone* with ridiculous political views that are almost hilarious to hear in this day and age, and how you almost need to come out of the world for a second and have a breather, the song has the sense of being underwater in the way that this person's views are suffocating and heard everywhere you turn and you want to swim up to get away from it. I like how discreet but blatantly obvious this song is, and I love that there's someone actually talking about it! And I love the little clip in it from the communist documentary/film thing it adds a bit of light humor to a serious topic.
3, An Act Of Kindness.
This is the first slower song on the album, it has minimal backing music that builds up and down throughout the song. It's about living in a world of people who go about their business and don't pay attention to others, about how people can be ignorant, and when you meet someone who shows kindness it stays with you for so long because it's so unexpected. And I think it's a dig at how it shouldn't be such a big deal when someone helps you with something because that's what people should generally be like anyway. It refers back to what I said about the Good Grief video, that everybody keeps to themselves these days.
4, Warmth.
Oooh this one is my second favourite of the album, it is similar lyrically to The Currents but musically is very lighter and happier. It's about being heavily affected by everything that's on the news at the minute and how the world doesn't look the same anymore but that there's always someone who can make you forget about what's going on and you just want that someone to make you forget for a while. Dan describes the album as "how f*cked up the world is but how amazing people are" and they said that this song is the one that made them decide the theme for the album because it has both the aspect of hating the world and loving people. I really love this song because of the aspect of having both the love and hate of the world, and it's just a really good sounding song too. Oh and I love the line "deafen me with music" because that is what I do all the time when I hate the world which makes me love the song even more.
5, Glory.
This one is my absolute favourite from the album! And I'm kinda mad that it is because all I've done all year is moan about how much of a mess the world is and I'm constantly deep in conversation with people about its' state etc. and I wanted a really opinionated song to be my favourite, but that's just not what happened. This song reminds me a lot of the Bad Blood album, it has the same kind of writing style and music tricks, even though it's much different and evolved to fit in with the music from Wild World.
This song is about being with someone late at night who you have a strong connection with and you're laying in the middle of a road staring at aeroplanes going past in the sky talking about the world, actually it's still talking about the mess of the world and how things are so glorified in social media and how people aim to be better than they are because of what they see online. Because to be successful in life is to do what the people do on the internet.
But here in this song Dan is saying he's happy just laying on this road with this person, needing no influences from anyone else.
I take back what I said about this song not being opinionated enough I figured more of the song out as I wrote it.
6, Power.
This is another favourite, with one exception, the chorus is too pop-y for me but that's my personal taste, the song as a whole I absolutely adore as it's also something that resonates with me. It's about someone who had power over you, and you reach a point of realisation, and cut them off I guess. Most of the song is explaining how this person had control over you, then the bridge/climax goes "if you're gonna hit me, hit me harder 'cause you better knock me out the first time, and if you're gonna do this rip the plaster" which I love because it's about standing up and facing something and rising above it and I love that because a lot of this album is actually about trying to hide away from things.
7, Two Evils.
This song!! It's the second slower song of the album, it's just Dan on vocals and Will on guitar, it's so stripped back but the song is really powerful and dark and it has a really threatening feel to it. There's so many ways I feel like you can interpret this song. It could be about two people or one, but I see it in the way that there's two personalities in you, one "evil" and one not, and it's about how being the better man is so much better, almost like he's at war with himself because he's angry but knows he needs to be in control, the "lesser of two evils" which is who Dan portrays in this song is still angry and threatening, but remains the bigger person, like he's trying to convince himself to walk away from a situation. I love it, and I love how the song is so suspenseful too.
8, Send Them Off!
This is one of my favourites too, it's upbeat but still quite dark. My interpretation is that it's about mental illness, it's about demons in your head that are taking over your life and you're desperate for some kind of relief, feeling trapped inside your mind and jealous of people who are free. I like the use of "exorcise my mind" which took me a while to realise he wanted his mind destroying, not exERcise which I first interpreted as begging for some kind of therapy to get his mind straight. ExORcise definitely has more of an impact to the song.
9, Lethargy.
This song is upbeat and has a light feel, but is obviously accompanied by depressing lyrics. It's about trying to have a place in the world I think, about how hard it is to try and be yourself when your stuck in a world of people who go by what's the "norm" and how it's too much hard work trying to have your own personality, wanting someone else to do the work for you, to tell you who to be. Because society is so used to being told who to be, from tabloids etc.
10. Four Walls (The Ballad OF Perry Smith).
This song is about a character from a book I wish I'd read so I might get a better understanding of the song, but it's about this person that did something bad and instead of facing what he's done he buries it inside of him and closes himself off from the world. It's another slower song but not as minimal musically as some of the other slow songs have been. I like that the four walls can really be interpreted to fit whatever you feel like they fit too. At first I saw it as you blocking yourself off from the world, then I saw it as a metaphor for society shutting you in etc, there's so many things you can do with this song...
TO BE CONTINUED...
So the album is called "Wild World" and has a consistent theme of things that happen in the world really, it's about just how screwed up the world really is, how important people are, people's behaviors such as corruptness, kindness, gangster-ism... The album talks about issues that are very close to my heart, and in the exact same way I see them/talk about them. Dan's not singing particularly about politics and saying "this person is doing this and that person has f*cked up doing that" it's just a kind of "have you seen what's going on the world, how mental" and I really love this theme on the album because it's so refreshing to see people write songs that mean something, songs that are relevant and talk about the world. Nothing to do with sex or a wild night out.. and I really love that.
Right so here we go.
1, Good Grief.
This song was released as a single and came with a very confusing music video which I also think I've decoded (to my interpretation). It's upbeat as an intro song should be, it's depressing.. as a Bastille song should be.. The song is one long, emotional, in-depth description on what grief can feel like. I love the "call me a fool, put me in my place" bit so much because it's like you're so desperate for this person and it makes you so emotional.
My theory for the music video is pretty basic, the start of it shows things that happen in everyday life, runners in a park, people winning things on TV, etc.. then angry teddy bears are running in the park and all the scenes are getting muddled up, people aren't where they're supposed to be and I think it represents that when you lose someone your whole world gets turned upside down and nothing is normal, everything is out of place etc. I also think the video is a visual representation of the album in the way that runners run in a park, robbers rob banks, competition winners are on TV, everyone has their slot in the world and there are invisible lines between everyone's lifestyle that splits them apart from each other, and the message in the video is that as a whole, as a community, people are so distant from each other these days. The guys you see run in the park every single day are a part of your life but they always remain strangers, a sense of community isn't part of today's lifestyle (at least not in the UK).
2, The Currents.
This second song is one of the more upbeat ones, it's one that plays live really well. The whole album's theme is kind of shaped in this song. It's about *someone* with ridiculous political views that are almost hilarious to hear in this day and age, and how you almost need to come out of the world for a second and have a breather, the song has the sense of being underwater in the way that this person's views are suffocating and heard everywhere you turn and you want to swim up to get away from it. I like how discreet but blatantly obvious this song is, and I love that there's someone actually talking about it! And I love the little clip in it from the communist documentary/film thing it adds a bit of light humor to a serious topic.
3, An Act Of Kindness.
This is the first slower song on the album, it has minimal backing music that builds up and down throughout the song. It's about living in a world of people who go about their business and don't pay attention to others, about how people can be ignorant, and when you meet someone who shows kindness it stays with you for so long because it's so unexpected. And I think it's a dig at how it shouldn't be such a big deal when someone helps you with something because that's what people should generally be like anyway. It refers back to what I said about the Good Grief video, that everybody keeps to themselves these days.
4, Warmth.
Oooh this one is my second favourite of the album, it is similar lyrically to The Currents but musically is very lighter and happier. It's about being heavily affected by everything that's on the news at the minute and how the world doesn't look the same anymore but that there's always someone who can make you forget about what's going on and you just want that someone to make you forget for a while. Dan describes the album as "how f*cked up the world is but how amazing people are" and they said that this song is the one that made them decide the theme for the album because it has both the aspect of hating the world and loving people. I really love this song because of the aspect of having both the love and hate of the world, and it's just a really good sounding song too. Oh and I love the line "deafen me with music" because that is what I do all the time when I hate the world which makes me love the song even more.
5, Glory.
This one is my absolute favourite from the album! And I'm kinda mad that it is because all I've done all year is moan about how much of a mess the world is and I'm constantly deep in conversation with people about its' state etc. and I wanted a really opinionated song to be my favourite, but that's just not what happened. This song reminds me a lot of the Bad Blood album, it has the same kind of writing style and music tricks, even though it's much different and evolved to fit in with the music from Wild World.
This song is about being with someone late at night who you have a strong connection with and you're laying in the middle of a road staring at aeroplanes going past in the sky talking about the world, actually it's still talking about the mess of the world and how things are so glorified in social media and how people aim to be better than they are because of what they see online. Because to be successful in life is to do what the people do on the internet.
But here in this song Dan is saying he's happy just laying on this road with this person, needing no influences from anyone else.
I take back what I said about this song not being opinionated enough I figured more of the song out as I wrote it.
6, Power.
This is another favourite, with one exception, the chorus is too pop-y for me but that's my personal taste, the song as a whole I absolutely adore as it's also something that resonates with me. It's about someone who had power over you, and you reach a point of realisation, and cut them off I guess. Most of the song is explaining how this person had control over you, then the bridge/climax goes "if you're gonna hit me, hit me harder 'cause you better knock me out the first time, and if you're gonna do this rip the plaster" which I love because it's about standing up and facing something and rising above it and I love that because a lot of this album is actually about trying to hide away from things.
7, Two Evils.
This song!! It's the second slower song of the album, it's just Dan on vocals and Will on guitar, it's so stripped back but the song is really powerful and dark and it has a really threatening feel to it. There's so many ways I feel like you can interpret this song. It could be about two people or one, but I see it in the way that there's two personalities in you, one "evil" and one not, and it's about how being the better man is so much better, almost like he's at war with himself because he's angry but knows he needs to be in control, the "lesser of two evils" which is who Dan portrays in this song is still angry and threatening, but remains the bigger person, like he's trying to convince himself to walk away from a situation. I love it, and I love how the song is so suspenseful too.
8, Send Them Off!
This is one of my favourites too, it's upbeat but still quite dark. My interpretation is that it's about mental illness, it's about demons in your head that are taking over your life and you're desperate for some kind of relief, feeling trapped inside your mind and jealous of people who are free. I like the use of "exorcise my mind" which took me a while to realise he wanted his mind destroying, not exERcise which I first interpreted as begging for some kind of therapy to get his mind straight. ExORcise definitely has more of an impact to the song.
9, Lethargy.
This song is upbeat and has a light feel, but is obviously accompanied by depressing lyrics. It's about trying to have a place in the world I think, about how hard it is to try and be yourself when your stuck in a world of people who go by what's the "norm" and how it's too much hard work trying to have your own personality, wanting someone else to do the work for you, to tell you who to be. Because society is so used to being told who to be, from tabloids etc.
10. Four Walls (The Ballad OF Perry Smith).
This song is about a character from a book I wish I'd read so I might get a better understanding of the song, but it's about this person that did something bad and instead of facing what he's done he buries it inside of him and closes himself off from the world. It's another slower song but not as minimal musically as some of the other slow songs have been. I like that the four walls can really be interpreted to fit whatever you feel like they fit too. At first I saw it as you blocking yourself off from the world, then I saw it as a metaphor for society shutting you in etc, there's so many things you can do with this song...
TO BE CONTINUED...
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