6. Bastille Bad Blood
Now this is a debut. Frontman Dan Smith has said in the past that Bad Blood was years in the making, which is reverberated in the opening lines of Pompeii, "I was left to my own devices, many days fell away with nothing to show..." but it seems he delivered this record at the most opportune moment. Bad Blood is an eddying, rhythmic album stirred with joy, fury, dark imagery and above all, a BIG sound. Often it is rather predictable, but predictably pleasing to listen to. Things We Lost in the Fire is a brilliant song performed live and the lyrics showcase Dan as an immense wordsmith; "I was the match and you were the rock, maybe we started this fire..." Oblivion is another compliment to the record and is beautifully simple featuring a piano and cello while layered vocal harmonies pepper along gently. And there's the songs that work better on festival stages like Of The Night, a terrific cover and infinitely better than the 90's original by Corona. Bastille offer an antidote to the homogenised X Factor-alumni-littered industry where at the epicentre lies auto-tune and One Direction, the latter of which got downgraded in the Top 40 Chart by Bastille, no less!