Top Five Songs: All This Bad Blood (Bastille)

I’m not sure if this album B-sides to Bad Blood or what.  I can’t recall ever getting a CD that came with a full-length bonus album of all different songs – remixes, sure, the odd new song here and there, but this whole album is new.  Whatever it is, I approve.  My picks are below.

“Poet” – Come on, how could I not love this one?  A writer immortalizing his beloved in words?  I’m all over that.  I adore the way the metaphor is used and how sexy it is, especially the repeated refrain of “I have written you down” and the line “I have read her with these eyes” in the bridge.

Best lyric:  “Now you’ll live through the ages. / I can feel your pulse in the pages.”

“The Silence” – Soaring melody, beautifully poetic lyrics, and this ineffable spirit that carries through it.  Such a gorgeous song; I love it so much.  “We used to swim in your stories / And be pulled down by the tide” gives such wonderful imagery, and since it also dwells on the power of words, it makes a perfect companion to “Poet.”

Best lyric:  “Wrap me around your fingers, / Break the silence open wide / Before it seeps into my ears / And fills me up from the inside.”

“Haunt” – First three songs, first three favorites – quite the frontloaded album.  That’s okay, though.  This one’s just cool and atmospheric, using the idea of a ghost to explore the regret of a lost relationship.  It makes me think of a line from Dead Like Me, where George notes, “Rube once told me that haunting is all about envy.”  In both cases, the haunting is viewed through the lens of the “ghost,” not the person who’s being visited, so focus is on the why, not the what.

Best lyric:  “You can’t see what’s past, make that happiness last, / Seeing from those eyes what you’ve become.”

“Laughter Lines” – So warm and lovely, one of the best ruminations I’ve found on the idea of “growing old” with someone.  “I’ll see you in the future when we’re older” expresses the idea wonderfully, suggesting an adventure or a journey, more than the passage of time.  Similarly, I like the way “I’ll see you with your laughter lines” recognizes the beauty of age and relishes it.

Best lyric:  “You took me to your favorite place on Earth / To see the tree they cut down ten years from your birth. / Our fingers traced in circles ‘round its history. / We brushed our hands right back in time through centuries.”

“Skulls” – Well, since we’ve done love preserved on paper and love enduring into old age, why love continuing after death?  Yes, it gets a little close to the morbid/angsty place occupied by people who don’t realize Romeo and Juliet were really dumb, but it also reminds me of the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and, as dramatic as that is, it still pulls me in like wow.  Major points by association!

Best lyric:  “Hold me in your arms, hold me in your arms. / I’ll be buried here with you, / And I’ll hold in these hands all that remains.”

Bastille: Bad Blood – Top Five Songs

I recently got Bastille’s 2013 album Bad Blood (packaged with All This Bad Blood, which is mostly all different material and a topic for another day,) and I’ve been listening to it a lot.  It’s been a while since I got a non-Broadway CD, and this was definitely a good one to go with.  Here are my favorite songs from the album.

“Pompeii” – This is the first Bastille song I ever heard and the reason I’m now the proud owner of Bad Blood.  (Incidentally, I first heard it on this fantastic In the Flesh fan video – incredibly apt.)  Pompeii is such a great metaphor for a life that feels like it’s in shambles, and I love the idea the chorus brings through, that, “If you close your eyes / Does it almost feel like / Nothing’s changed at all?”

Best lyric:  “We were caught up and lost in all of our vices / In your pose as the dust settled around us.”

“Bad Blood” – Great driving beat with a really cool groove.  A lot of the songs on this album, it seems, are about people and relationships that are fractured in some way, and the title song fits that theme well.  That said, many of the songs are also about the desire to heal and move on, a theme this song also displays quite handily.

Best lyric:  “These are the days that bind you together, forever. / And these little things define you forever, forever.”

“Icarus” – The theme is self-destruction this time, no surprise based on the title.  However, rather than going the usual route of dangerous ambition, the song is about more of a general downward spiral.  As such, the metaphor is maybe a bit muddied, but I still love it.  The galloping rhythm on the verses is fantastic, and I love the soaring lilt of the chorus.

Best lyric:  “Living beyond your years, / Acting out all their fears. / You feel it in your chest.”

“Flaws” – I really love this one.  Its insanely catchy melody aside, I like that it’s so much about resilience in the midst of struggle, recognizing how our flaws can help us grow and how we can help one another deal with them.  The repeated line, “There’s a hole in my soul. / Can you fill it? / Can you fill it?” is so simple, yet so gorgeous.

Best lyric:  “All of your flaws and all of my flaws, they lie there hand in hand. / Ones we’ve inherited, ones that we learn. / They pass from man to man.”

“Laura Palmer” – I’m amazed by how well this song captures the feel of the famous murdered girl from Twin Peaks without going into many details from the show.  I like that, rather than passing judgment on Laura’s choices, the song simply chronicles them.  The eternal repetition is how, for better or worse, she always followed her “beating heart.”

Best lyric:  “Walking out into the dark, / Cutting out a different path / Led by your beating heart.”