Bastille Shares Conclusion to ‘Ampersand’ Series

Bastille has shared a new collection of songs. “&” (Ampersand), Part Four is the conclusion of a series that Dan Smith began in 2024. The project aims to tell stories about intertwining lives, people who are joined together in the way that honors the ampersand itself.

The EP features “Bored and Overboard (Pandora’s Box),” a confessional wrapped in myth. Other tracks include “Bonnie & Clyde,” a modern outlaw romance, a biblical retelling on “Bathsheba & Him,” and the introspective “My Head & The Glass.” Part Four includes bonus live recordings from ARTE’s intimate Turner Gallery sessions.

“Even though it’s an album about other people, it’s still a really personal album to me,” Smith told Clash. “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.”

Last year, as part of the “&” (Ampersand) project, Bastille released “Eve & Paradise Lost,” a song that explores the fundamental unfairness and imbalance in the love between Eve and Adam. The music video stars British actress Simone Ashley (Bridgerton, Sex Education) and is directed by the BAFTA award-winning director, writer, and actor, Dominic Savage.

Smith began developing “&” (Ampersand) in 2020, feeling motivated to pursue a more gentle project. The writing process took him back to a time before Bastille’s 2013 debut Bad Blood, on which he wrote all the songs solo. & (Ampersand) arrived with a podcast co-hosted by Smith and academic Emma Nagouse. Muses: An ‘Ampersand’ Podcast explores the historical figures featured in the music including painter Edvard Munch, Leonard Cohen and Marianne Ihlen, and Smith’s own family.

Listen to Bastille’s “&” (Ampersand), Part Four now.