Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Paul Mardles

Bastille: Wild World review – wholesome arena pop

Bastille’s Dan Smith on stage in Paris, August 2016.
Bastille’s Dan Smith on stage in Paris, August 2016. Photograph: Edmond/Sipa/Rex/Shutterstock

With their muted electronic beats and rousing, arena-friendly choruses, Bastille are the archetypal modern pop band and, judging by the sales of their debut album, Bad Blood, a future headline act on Glastonbury’s main stage. The quartet’s second set is, unsurprisingly, not a million miles from their first, though this time singer and songwriter Dan Smith tackles global politics rather than growing up. The best track, The Currents, rails against Farage and Trump, its venomous riff compensating for the mundane words (“I can’t believe the scary points you make”). Elsewhere, though, for all the “woah-oh-oh”s and snippets of dialogue from 1980s films, Wild World is too wholesome to generate real thrills.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.