Welcome back, everyone! I hope you all have had a great start to your school year! To kick off this semester, I am introducing a new series: New Music Monday. As you can probably take away from its name, I will be spotlighting new and noteworthy artists and albums that will be posted on Mondays! I’m so excited to get started on this series.
This week’s spotlight is on indie pop band Bastille’s new album, Wild World.
Most of you probably know their song “Pompeii,” which was featured on the band’s debut album, Bad Blood (2013). The song peaked at number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. If you’re like me, you probably listened to that album on repeat for days because it was just too good with its catchy hooks and clever lyrics. So when the first single from Wild World, “Good Grief,” dropped in June, I was so excited to hear what the bands next step was.
Since the first single is also the first song on the album, let’s start out by talking about “Good Grief.” If you’re looking for a fun, upbeat song to dance to, this is it. It’s a great song to turn up in the car and sing with your friends. The song pulls some elements from the previous album, like the heavy drumbeats and group vocals, while also playing in a new, more pop music vibe.
On the grander scheme of things as far as the album is concerned though, “Good Grief” is the only song of its kind on Wild World. The album is sort of a grab bag of different styles.
There are songs like “The Currents,” “Snakes,” and “Winter of Our Youth” that sound a lot like the alternative electro-pop sound that Bad Blood had. Then there’s songs like “Blame” and “Two Evils” that sound like they belong on a crossover album for Arctic Monkey and Hozier, which I’m honestly not even complaining about. Many of the songs have 1940’s and 50’s styled intros that sound like soundbites from old TV shows and movies. It really adds a unique sound to the album as a whole as well as the songs individually.
My top five recommended tracks from the album are:
- “Blame”
- “Warmth”
- “Good Grief”
- “Send Them Off!”
- “Two Evils”
While it is a bit of a lengthy album with nineteen tracks in total, I think that Wild World is definitely worth the listen!
The album, Wild World, is available for purchase at most music retailers or listen to it for free on streaming services such as Spotify or Pandora.
Check out the band’s latest music video for their single, “Good Grief”:
Have any suggestions for next weeks spotlight? Leave them in the comments below!