Some say the monumental chorus of “Pompeii,” the epic single which vaulted Bastille from London amateurs to alt-rock superstars, can still be heard echoing from the radio stations of 2013. With just one song Bastille had created a name for themselves, but they had simultaneously set a standard for all future releases.
Enter “Wild World,” the newest release from the group, which picks up right where “Bad Blood” left things three years ago. The pounding synths and reverberating guitars are back in full force, with just enough subtle piano hooks to keep things from getting too predictable. With the original release of “Wild World” going 14 songs deep and the “Complete Version” adding five more, Bastille has certainly made up for lost time.
The first utterance on the album, however, is not a musical note, but a strange voice: “So, what would you little maniacs like to do first?” The reference is from the 1985 geek-centered comedy “Weird Science,” where two high school outcasts use a computer to create the perfect woman. In a recent interview, lead singer Dan Smith said the band chose to begin the album this way “to give it a sense of nostalgia.” Bastille are certainly not outcasts like the desperate kids of “Weird Science,” but they are “maniacs” in their own way as they continue to find surprising success in a sonic niche not easily pegged as a specific genre.
The nostalgia and references don’t end there, though, as Bastille interweaves excerpts of everything from a Cold War-era propaganda cartoon (“The Currents”) to an episode of “Freaks and Geeks” (“Snakes”) to a ’70s Italian sci-fi flick which rated 2.7 out of 10 stars on IMDb (“Send Them Off!”). When the band announced the album, their press release labeled its theme as the “human condition.” They seem to be reaching to all corners of media-based expression in order to analyze this theme.
Nowhere is this more evident than on bonus track “Way Beyond,” where Smith sings “Movies and news on television / Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference, oh / When real life’s more f-----d up than fiction.” These lyrics strike especially deep in a time when many have become numb to the onslaught of tragedy and corruption plaguing the world. The title “Wild World” is a concise yet powerful way to capture this condition. The album also accurately stages it with the cover artwork of two people sitting on the edge of a skyscraper, both observing and hiding from the chaos below.
Luckily, much like a skyscraper perch above the world, Bastille’s music is an escape, a way to transcend all else by riding the waves of synthesizers and arena-filling choruses. While there may not be another “Pompeii,” all the ingredients are still present but spread out uniformly throughout the record. From the opening thrash of “The Currents” to the soaring chorus of “Fake It,” to Smith’s impassioned vocals waiting around every turn, the whole album oozes a sense of “rising above.”
Whether the nostalgia of “Wild World” is for the purpose of harkening back to simpler times or to show that the world always has been wild is tough to say. What is easier to deduce is how the triumphant music of “Wild World” exists outside of the chaotic context referred to in the lyrics. As “Warmth” articulates, “Hold me in this wild, wild world / ‘Cause in your warmth I forget how cold it can be.”
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