Music Review: Bastille "Pompeii"

Bastille

Pompeii

Album: Bad Blood

Year: 2013

           Daniel Smith observes the ruins of his life in the dire Pompeii.”

            A glutted synth and a chorus of “ah oh’s” open the single, setting a cleansing tone. He’s able to fit a couple more plates into the box. With the tape, he seals it and finds another box. His brother loads the others into his van. It was many poor decisions that led him to losing his home. He drank and did drugs all day with his girlfriend. He told his parents he wasn’t able to find a job. However, he wasn’t really looking. He spent the money his parents gave him to go out to the clubs. (“I was left to my own devices/Many days fell away with nothing to show.”)

        Throughout the city, for lease signs were posted on the lawns of once thriving businesses. Neighborhoods were being emptied by foreclores. Everyday, a robbery was being reported from the local businesses as well as from people’s homes. From his porch, he watches the steel gray clouds close in on the sun. He’s heard whispers that a body was found further down his neighborhood. (“And the walls kept tumbling down/In the city that we love/Great clouds roll over the hills/Bringing darkness from above.”)

            In the chorus, he asks his brother to shut his eyes for a moment. As they stand together in the foyer, he says he can hear the train rumbling past. The couple next door are trying to figure out what to do with their plants for the winter. He’s a teenager in his room, playing video games instead of doing homework. He wonders out loud to his brother that he feels as he’s the same person he was at sixteen. He hasn’t matured at all during the last fourteen years. He confides to him that he believes he will continue to fail. (“But if you close your eyes/Does it almost feel like/Nothing changed at all?/And if you close your eyes/Does it almost feel like/You've been here before?/How am I gonna be an optimist about this?/How am I gonna be an optimist about this?”)

           He tells his brother he started forgetting days. They were filled with smoke and endless sex. The important thing was getting the next hit.  He kept wondering why he couldn’t be like his brother. His brother stands with his arms folded around his chest and his head turned away. It was how he imagined it. (“We were caught up and lost in all of our vices/In your pose as the dust settles around us.”)

            The pre-chorus is sung again.

            The chorus is sung again, with a “if you close your eyes” added at the end.

            In the bridge, he asks his brother for his friendship. They were close once. However, he has screwed up by stealing from him and his brother thinks he’s a lost cause. They are both at fault. He isn’t sure to apologize or confess in order to start rebuilding their relationship. (“Oh where do we begin?/The rubble or our sins?/Oh where do we begin?/The rubble or our sins?”)

                 The pre-chorus and chorus are sung again to end the single.

         Smith’s cynical vocals yearn to be understood. He has gone through too much to believe it will get better. His family merely tolerates him. Even with their help, it won’t ever be like it was before. His self-destruction has been severe, destroying what little promise he had.

            The smart “Pompeii” turns a historical event into a metaphor for surviving life itself.