Bastille has dropped its new single just two days after casually letting fans know “something loud” was coming this week.
On Thursday (July 30), the English rockers dropped “WHAT YOU GONNA DO???” featuring Blur's Graham Coxon and yes, it is loud and very different from what we usually hear from the guys.
“We wanted to make something totally different and we’re hoping to constantly surprise you guys with everything we do next,” the band wrote in a note to email subscribers. “Making this music has been a brilliant distraction for us during what has been a f***ing weird year for everyone, and hopefully the song is a raucous, loud 2 minutes of eye-rolling escapism for you.”
As with many of Bastille's songs, frontman Dan Smith sings about society being glued to their phones and living so much of life behind a screen. We even get a matching animated video to drive the message home.
In the track's second verse Smith sings: “Sally's never outside / Got a screen to hide behind / She says she’s happy on the inside / And got a lot of friends online.”
And as someone who has admitted to having his phone "surgically attached” to him, Smith knows the struggles of social media obsession.
“The song tells a few little stories that all center around how weird it is to have everybody and everything fighting for our attention, our eyes and ears, all the time,” the band continued in its email note. “It’s a challenge to those people to offer something a bit better, funnier and more worthwhile once they’ve got us listening.”
In the chorus, Bastille asks: “Listening, you got us listening / So what you gonna do with it? / You got us listening / So what you gonna do? / Now, what you gonna do with it?”
So whether it's a dig at celebrities with a big platform who don't use it for good or a call to action for them to use their platform positively, the track is a good reminder to critically think about the messages you're being sent via social media and other online outlets.
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