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Like Coldplay (that I love so much) Bastille is a band artist that people often mistakenly think the lead singer, Dan smith, is a single artist.
I’d like to say that the contents of this thread are wholly personal interpretations of the songs featured. Whenever I listen to a song, I try to give the song a meaning or story line and that’s what determines how much I love a song or not.
Pompeii was probably the first Bastille song I heard but what drew me to liking them was how their songs were worded (sounded like poetry to me) and Dan Smith’s calming voice. So here’s some of my favorite Bastille songs:
From Bad Blood: Pompeii, These Streets, Flaws, Daniel in the Den, Laura Palmer, Get Home, Weight of Living pt. 1 (bonus track) and Laughter Lines (bonus track)
Another thing I love about Bastille is how all the songs on an album relates back to the album title somehow
Another thing I love about Bastille is how all the songs on an album relates back to the album title somehow
Pompeii: Pompeii sets the pace for the album beautifully. Like the city being destroyed, Dan sings about a great city (representing love between two people) being destroyed. It is from this breakup that the Bad blood between the ex lovers is formed.
The city is destroyed by the eruption of mt. Vesuvius and covered in ash. The rest of the album is about fleeing from the city (leaving the lover behind). This is further cemented by the next song being aptly named “Things we lost in the fire”
These Streets: The song opens with “These streets are yours you can keep them. They pull me back and I surrender to the memories I try to run from. But even if we wont admit it to ourselves we'll walk upon these streets and think of little else. I won't show my face here anymore”
Here it seems Dan’s character is walking through the ruined city’s streets (reminiscing about their love) and resolves not to see the lover or keep the memories they’ve made together (especially since they lost them in the fire).
Flaws: contrary to what he said before, the character is reminiscing about his lost love and especially about how the lover made him come to terms with accepting his flaws. He laments about having a hole in soul from losing love and having to face the flaws he was hiding alone
Daniel in the den: The character is obviously a bad liar at this point because despite posing as a hard guy, he’s still crying about his broken heart. He takes on Daniel characteristics and is faced with hardships (the lions) but is still overcome by being hurt
The Daniel here could imply the character is actually Dan himself. Dan sings about how the recovery process has been at a “pace unknown” to man. Additionally, he sings about despite how deadly the lions are, they don’t amount to the pain of being hurt by the lover
Laura Palmer: Dan finally gives a name to this unknown person. He laments about the people that lived in the city (probably people that knew them together) didn’t warn him of how heartless LP was. He tries pointing out to LP that she has a heart and she should use it.
Get home: The whole album has been a journey from a ruined pompeii to healing. Dan is alone with his thoughts hence the use of “we” throughout the song. Dan is at a standstill and can’t figure out how to move forward since it’s dark and he doesn’t know where to go.
He feels the world is against him with the weather being cold and the birds laughing at his efforts to “get home”. This song also ties into the album cover signifying the hopelessness of running in the dark and not knowing where he’s headed. It’s also the last track on the album.
Bonus track 2: Weight of Living Pt. 1
I love this song a lot. It’s about letting go of past mistakes holding you down and allowing yourself the opportunity to grow past who you were before. Those mistakes are referred to the weight of living being an albatross around one’s neck
I love this song a lot. It’s about letting go of past mistakes holding you down and allowing yourself the opportunity to grow past who you were before. Those mistakes are referred to the weight of living being an albatross around one’s neck
Bonus track 3: Laughter Lines
This whole song is rooted in tree symbolism. It’s a beautifully written song about two friends making a promise to each other to live fulfilled lives and to share their stories when they’re older.
This whole song is rooted in tree symbolism. It’s a beautifully written song about two friends making a promise to each other to live fulfilled lives and to share their stories when they’re older.
After “reliving” the life of a tree cut when one of them was 10 by counting the number of annual rings the stump has, the two children promise to see each other again when they have laughter lines (wrinkles) from having experienced many good stories.
If you’ve made it here, thank you for taking the time to read
