Wild World

Wild World is Bastille’s sophomore album and follow up to 2013’s Bad Blood. The album’s title is taken from the chorus of “Warmth” which Dan sees as the song which ties Wild World together, encompassing the album’s major themes. He elaborated in an interview with DIY Magazine:

[“Warmth”] was the track that articulated, for the first time, how overwhelming it can seem to be watching or reading the news and it seeming so mad and confusing. It’s about figuring out ways to react against that, and sometimes that is just running to the person that you love because they’re the perfect distraction in that situation. It’s just about trying to have an honest reaction to things.

In an interview with NME, Dan Smith spoke about Wild World’s overall sound:

“I think we’ve really pushed our sound. The whole album weaves through these different moods and scenes, going from massive to tiny and intimate and then back to bombastic again. Because the first album was initially a bedroom project and I couldn’t play guitar at the time, there were no guitars on it. But then from touring we found that Will [Farquarson], who plays bass in the band, is also a really good guitarist. So we’ve tried to incorporate guitars into this album without falling into that clichéd indie sound. We’ve never really given a fuck about existing within a genre. If we wanna have a ridiculous, over-the-top blaring horn sample on one song and then go into minimal electronica on the next, that’s completely fine.”

Dan also told NME that samples are used to “help texture the album”.

“Yeah, it’s a big mix from films, old documentaries, found footage, stuff we recorded ourselves. We’ve actually had to re-record quotes from films because of clearance issues. It’s such a nightmare!… I think there’s something about isolating a couple of sentences of spoken words that sets a tone. It can create a world that seems so different from the one we live in.”

Note that this album is reflective of Wild World: Complete Edition. The standard version encompasses the first 14 tracks only.