Album Review: Bastille, Doom Days

Six years on from their breakthrough single ‘Pompeii’, Bastille continue to exert a powerful grip on indie-pop in the UK and beyond. Much of this has been down to their mercurial approach, which takes pop influences du jour and wraps them around Bastille’s unique indie sound.

Doom Days carries on in this vein, with the one notable difference that this is the band’s first attempt at a concept album. Beginning with ‘Quarter Past Midnight’, the record documents a night out at a party while the apocalypse happens outside. It’s rich in everything Bastille fans have come to love about the group: rousing synth-pop anthems; Dan Smith’s affecting croon; and radio-friendly hooks.

Meanwhile, vivid imagery, smart interplay between solemn numbers and upbeat ones, and a palpable sense of urgency lend the album an edge lacking in their previous effort, Wild World. This is only undercut by the bland ‘Another Place’ and ‘Those Nights’, tracks which drag the album down slightly.

Bastille may not win many new converts with this outing, but it’ll please their fanbase, and should make for an entertaining live show.

7/10

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