Sonic Street Style with Bastille ("Send Them Off!")

Photo of my finished Bastille-inspired outfit

Every year within the first few days of January, I like to make a New Year playlist of songs to set the tone for the next 12 months. It’s one part inspiration, one part commemoration and one part wishful thinking. I spent all of Tuesday crafting my 2018 list, paying special attention to the order and the mood as you listen through it all. My playlist begins with “Send Them Off!” by Bastille and it is that song that inspired this sonic street style today. 

Close your eyes for a moment. Before I delve into how “Send Them Off!” drove my sartorial choices, I want you to experience this song the way I experienced it for the first time. It is dark outside. Cold. You are standing in a tacky mixture of mud and grass, eyes fixated on a pitch black stage far ahead. Shivers repeatedly shock through your chest down to your legs and rain lightly falls on your jacket. You have been freezing in this amphitheater all day and as much as you want to stay out there until the bitter end, you turn to your best friend to let her know that you have to go home after Bastille’s set ends otherwise you will collapse from cold and exhaustion. 

Cheers sound off throughout the venue as lights begin to flicker and a spoken introduction begins, but you barely register it. Everything inside you has all but given up… Until you hear a bass line fill the freezing air and before you know it, the opening brass section in “Send Them Off!” rips you out of your tired frame. Dan Smith’s forceful vocals wring energy out of you that you didn’t know you still had. By the time the final chorus begins, your arms slice through the air, small tears pool slightly at your eyes and you choke out one last “Set me free!” with the rest of the crowd. Though you still go home that night after Bastille’s set, dead tired and mud covered, you leave the amphitheater smiling and not regretting a second of their set.

Ever since that night, “Send Them Off!” has been a cathartic source of strength for me and I wanted to remind myself of that strength whenever I listened to my 2018 playlist. Yesterday, I did not want to leave my bed to go out to dinner with a friend. A rush of painful emotions had wracked my mind all day and all I wanted to do was hide. It took some time, but I pressed play on my playlist, heard that opening horn section charge ahead, got up, and put together my outfit for the night.

Pictured: Dark green wool winter coat, dark gray wool sweater, red and black checkered shirt, black jeans, black combat boots

I really wanted an outfit that felt like a battle uniform. Something to make me feel as strong as those horns did. My military green wool coat has been a staple winter statement piece for me and it ended up being an excellent match to “Send Them Off!”. I always feel confident in its large silhouette and sharp lines. Putting on a thick dark gray wool sweater, black jeans and a red and black shirt tied around my waist, all the layers felt like armor for my scattered state of mind. Finished off with a beanie and black combat boots, I felt as ready as I ever could be to push off my terrible mood. 

Walking out my front door into the night air, I turned my collar to the cold and thought of the pleading vocals in “Send Them Off!”. There’s a moment in the last chorus where the strain in Smith’s voice really cuts through the rest of the instruments. When I thought of that moment, it is almost as if Smith reached out to challenge me to keep moving. And so I did. I went to dinner and enjoyed myself despite how low I had been earlier. I came home last night and shed my armor, weary from having to fight through my negative thoughts but happy to see a good friend. Much like the night I heard “Send Them Off!” for the first time, I crawled back into bed last night with a smile and no regrets.