Bastille has shared a brand new assortment of songs. “&” (Ampersand), Half 4 is the conclusion of a sequence that Dan Smith started in 2024. The mission goals to inform tales about intertwining lives, people who find themselves joined collectively in the way in which that honors the ampersand itself.
The EP options “Bored and Overboard (Pandora’s Box),” a confessional wrapped in fable. Different tracks embody “Bonnie & Clyde,” a contemporary outlaw romance, a biblical retelling on “Bathsheba & Him,” and the introspective “My Head & The Glass.” Half 4 contains bonus reside recordings from ARTE’s intimate Turner Gallery classes.
“Even though it’s an album about other people, it’s still a really personal album to me,” Smith informed Conflict. “It’s like a real snapshot into a time of my life and the idea behind the whole project was to do something that both leant into the bits that I love, which is writing, and the kind of isolation that comes with that and also the imagination, the research process, and then put that to one side and really lean into the collaborative part of the process as well.”
Final yr, as a part of the “&” (Ampersand) mission, Bastille launched “Eve & Paradise Lost,” a track that explores the basic unfairness and imbalance within the love between Eve and Adam. The music video stars British actress Simone Ashley (Bridgerton, Intercourse Training) and is directed by the BAFTA award-winning director, author, and actor, Dominic Savage.
Smith started growing “&” (Ampersand) in 2020, feeling motivated to pursue a extra mild mission. The writing course of took him again to a time earlier than Bastille’s 2013 debut Unhealthy Blood, on which he wrote all of the songs solo. & (Ampersand) arrived with a podcast co-hosted by Smith and educational Emma Nagouse. Muses: An ‘Ampersand’ Podcast explores the historic figures featured within the music together with painter Edvard Munch, Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, and Smith’s family.
Take heed to Bastille’s “&” (Ampersand), Half 4 now.
