Click here for photos of B∆stille at Terminal 5 in New York, NY on June 7th, 2022
Click here for photos of B∆stille at 2017 BBC Radio One’s Big Weekend in Hull, U.K.
Click here for photos of B∆stille at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on March 30th, 2017
Click here for photos of B∆stille at 2016 Pandora Holiday Den in New York, NY
Click here for photos of B∆stille at Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, NY on October 3rd, 2016
Click here for photos of B∆stille at Radio City Music Hall in New York, NY on October 10th, 2014
Click here for photos of B∆stille at 2014 Boston Calling in Boston, MA
Click here for photos of B∆stille at 2014 Hangout Festival in Gulf Shores, AL
Even though they came up in the era of electronica, Bastille have always been something more, not just throwing out beats & drops, but making strong music. So, it comes as not a real surprise that they’d try something different. & is that, mixing acoustic & orchestral for a singular change-up.
From the start with opener “Intros & Narrators”, & is not club-thumping EDM, but rather intimate emotion with a grand sweep. Admittedly veering into Coldplay territory, and having been a four-part project of EPs released this year, & does have too many tracks to push what it is selling (also, every song has the titular “&” in their titles). However, the strong pieces really get to a listener, such as “Narrators”, the indie-rock “Blue Sky & The Painter”, strings-led emotion of “Essie & Paul”, and lovely & sad orchestral finish “Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024”.
An artist going outside of their comfort zone is always risky, from being overdone to just plain bad, to say nothing of fans who want what they’ve already been getting. While Bastille do it a lot, they do it beautifully on &.
