| On June 14, Virgin Records will release Bastille’s new album, Doom Days. Made by Dan Smith with bandmates Kyle Simmons, Will Farquarson and Chris ‘Woody’ Wood, and producer Mark Crew, it sees the GRAMMY®-nominated, Brit-winning band stretch out and open up like never before.
Doom Days marks something of a shift in perception from its widely acclaimed predecessor Wild World which confronted the world and the actions of those in power. Recorded during the course of 2018 at the band’s South London studio, One Eyed Jack’s. the new album captures the need to temporarily switch off and escape.
Doom Days takes the listener on a big night out in search of distraction from the surrounding apocalypse; be that screaming along to the radio in the back of an Uber careering through the city (the electric “Quarter Past Midnight”), getting loved up in the company of good friends (“4AM”), a casual hook-up (“Another Place”) or the end-of-night longing to be with somebody (“Those Nights”). It revels in the bad decisions we make, both personally in our relationships and collectively on a macro scale (“Bad Decisions”), tells a relatable tale of being cornered into a deep discussion about the world’s problems when all you want to do is have a good time (“Million Pieces”), and wryly confronts modern anxieties, taking side-swipes at phone addiction, porn addiction, fake news and climate change denial (“Doom Days”).
The album celebrates real human connections and urges us to keep searching for those moments of elation. Being set over the course of one night allows the band to hold a mirror up to the world using personal, relatable situations. Doom Days ends waking on the kitchen floor with the healing sounds of euphoric new single “Joy,” which sees the demons of life’s hangovers dispelled by a simple phone call from someone special. “That glimmer of hope at the end of the album says everything,” says Dan Smith. “The smallest human gesture can pull you back from the brink.” |
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