This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Miami (OH) chapter.
Perhaps we love Bastille for their sick, danceable beats…or maybe it’s lead singer Dan Smith’s mile-high hair! It could even be that they only released 300 copies of their first EP, and became world renowned just two years later.
In any case, we do know that the British alternative rock band’s biggest hit, “Pompeii,” is the song to dance to Uptown. With it’s tribal-esque chants, techno drum riffs, and indie rhythms, Bastille has put behind them the notion that they are only good for covering hits from the nineties. For proof, check out “Of the Night,” a mashup of “Rhythm of the Night” by Corona and “Rhythm is a Dancer” by Snap.
Bastille has fiercely caught on to the industry’s techno music wave while still managing to stand out with Dan Smith’s lovely British croon, organic background choirs, and uniquely danceable beats. Their debut album, “Bad Blood,” is a pile of plucking strings (“Things We Lost In The Fire”), in which Smith’s falsetto is set to a backdrop of violins and techno blips (“Oblivion”), and mature lyrics calling for exposure and salvation weaved between waves of mechanical lilts and pulses (“Flaws”).
Bastille’s success is long overdue. Forget “up-and-coming”, “Pompeii”and the rest of the tracks off of “Bad Blood,” are the sound of a band that’s already arrived.