Doom Days

by 
AlbumJun 14 / 201911 songs, 40m 6s
Synthpop Electropop
Popular

“This album is a concept record,” frontman Dan Smith explains to Apple Music’s Zane Lowe. “We’re telling the course of a night out during the apocalypse.” The pop quartet begins with the giddy expectations of “Quarter Past Midnight” and hurtles toward the booze-fueled euphoria of “Million Pieces” before morning breaks and a text from a crush on the upbeat “Joy” ends the party—and the album. “When you try and do something that’s different and creative—particularly in the environment at the moment with people being obsessed with single songs—it’s so nice to double down and care about those songs but really think about a record and a narrative,” says Smith. Their third album brings together the skyscraping choruses of debut *Bad Blood*, electronic experimentation of follow-up *Wild World*, and gospel singers from their 2018 ReOrchestrated UK tour in a dizzying reflection of the turbulent times we live in. These elements come together spectacularly on the saxophone-powered “Those Nights.” “We wanted to write something about that point in the night when you’re craving human contact and create something woozy and beautiful,” says Smith. The quartet’s drums replicate “that moment just before the night blurs out into oblivion.” *Doom Days* addresses social anxiety (“The Waves”), phone addiction (“Doom Days”), excess (“Nocturnal Creatures”), and political apathy (“Million Pieces”), but the Londoners are confident that redemption can be found in human interaction and a good party.

On their most inventive, boundary-hopping album yet, the London band attempt to party away political strife.

5 / 10

Dan Smith and co won't win over any doubters here, but Doom Days isn't without its charms

Madonna - Madame X

They’ve built a conceptual world not all too different to the one we’re facing right now.

After confronting global corruption on 2016's Wild World, it's only natural that the men of Bastille would feel the need for escape that they express on Doom Days.

Bastille make the case for partying while we still can, bringing another collection of arena-worthy hooks to third album Doom Days.

Indie-pop group Bastille’s third studio album Doom Days journeys through a long night spent looking for distraction, ending in a “glimmer of hope.”

8 / 10

Indie pop group Bastille’s third studio album ‘Doom Days’ is a journey through a long night spent looking for distraction – a

4 / 10

At first pass, Doom Days – the third studio album by the British pop act Bastille – seems like just the right title for an album released in the year...

Album Reviews: Bastille - Doom Days