In a world that at times feels like it’s crumbling below our feet, one of the UK’s brightest bands gift us with an unapologetic pop record about escapism.
British indie rockers Bastille have this innate ability to remind people of their own humanity; how arduous yet beautiful this thing we call life can be. It has been a running theme throughout their music, especially in recent years. ‘Give Me The Future’, their newly released fourth album, deviates, instead looking at the human condition through the lense of developing tech and an ever-increasing move to online spaces. “If this is real life, I’ll stick to dreaming”, front-man Dan Smith croons on the album’s opening track between electro-heavy synths. It’s the perfect introduction to unfamiliar sonic territory for the band, one that may alienate some fans, but sees Bastille at their most free.
The band have been adamant that their first three records exist as a trilogy, but it feels as though ‘Doom Days’ and ‘Give Me The Future’ could be two sides of the same coin. Where ‘Doom Days’ delves into finding comfort in real life people as the world collapses around us, ‘Give Me The Future’ explores humanity’s desperation to use technology as a tool for escapism and how that has altered our relationships with each other and ourselves. Not as intimate as we’ve come to expect, it seems to be chasing after the heart that has been showcased within so much of the foursome’s previous music but doesn’t quite reach it. Which isn’t to label that as a short-coming; it appears intentional – to remind us that you can never truly replicate the human experience, and to fully immerse listeners into the concept being presented.
The dedication is clear and signifies that this is truly Bastille throwing their rule book to the wind and trying something new. Or perhaps I’m simply overanalysing; an easy feat towards a band who is able to create such vivid imagery with their songs.
While there are moments of connection throughout the record, they are mostly accompanied by meticulous maximalist production. ‘No Bad Days’, a track inspired by personal experience with assisted euthanasia, for example, is the expected sombre moment of the album, but is instead presented as a moody upbeat track layered over clicking drums. Bastille are masters at creating music you want to both cry and dance to, and despite building a record around what can be scary and disorientating subject matter, ‘Give Me The Future’ is at its simplest, full of catchy infectious pop tracks. Disco-funk Back To The Future and Keith Haring inspired Club 57 are particularly ‘boppy’ and will no doubt have a crowd on their feet.
Possibly the strongest moment in the album comes with the Plug In…, Promises and Shut Off The Lights trio. Plug In, as arguably one the boldest showcases of Bastille’s creativity with sound and genre, answers the question of “what happens when you combine rapping, technical jargon, a bit of autotune and Dan Smith’s incredible vocal abilities with a breathtaking violin arrangement?” Pure magic, it turns out. Promises, a spoken-word poetry piece by actor and rapper Riz Ahmed follows and breaks things up a bit. It is a poignant addition and a very powerful moment. It fades perfectly into Shut Off The Lights, the band’s most recent single and one of their catchiest songs so far.
Smith, an admitted film nerd, threads film and pop culture references throughout the lyrics, reminding us that this is Bastille’s most cinematic album yet. Each song feels as though it could be plucked out of a soundtrack. The interludes in particular do a fantastic job of seamlessly tying the album together. Much like the sci-fi movies it has been inspired by, this is a record best appreciated in full. My only strife is the absence of the Back To The Innerverse interlude and Real Life, saved for the deluxe edition released just a few days later. Without, it feels incomplete. Future Holds, the album’s closing track is a beautiful lyrical contradiction to the songs before it, but doesn’t quite feel triumphant enough for a finale piece. To step back into the ‘innerverse’, as the band and their fictitious company Future Inc. call it, after so desperately declaring “who cares what the future holds, as long as I got you”, would perhaps have been the confronting and uncomfortable end to the album that the world needed.
‘Give Me The Future’ is a concept album heavily influenced by pop and electronic music, and that won’t be to everybody’s taste, but it does showcase the versatility of one of the UK’s most successful bands. For an act that was essentially catapulted onto the international stage without permission, Bastille have worked their asses off to build a catalogue worth the hype. This is the record this band needed to make; to experiment, collaborate and switch things up in order to progress, and it has evidently paid off. They may be ten years in, yet there’s no slowing down this lot. The future might be unknown, but it’s looking golden and bright for Bastille.
Backstage Goss 