Bastille seems to have given up on everything; in the present at least. There’s no explanation needed. Instead, Dan Smith and company have started visualizing the future. Fractured lighting, trippy visuals and A.I. are just a few of the images conjured while listening to fourth album Give Me The Future. The British band works to push its sound past its poppy origins, crafting a collection of beat-heavy, dance-oriented tracks. It feels therapeutic for the band, which used the concept of the future to make sense of and live through the chaos of the present.

Across the album’s 13 tracks, Bastille finds itself relating to film characters and pop culture, employing a series of musical interludes to tastefully break up the journey to the future.

Best known for synth- and guitar-led singles like “Pompeii” or “Things We Lost In The Fire,” the band’s opening track, “Distorted Light Beam,” immediately charts a new path. “It isn’t enough to start a riot/ Distort the light bean until I like me,” Smith sings in the opening lyrics, searching and hoping to find himself in a fiction world.

“Thelma + Louise” takes escapism in a different direction. To the southern border to be exact, like Thelma and Louise themselves in the iconic feminist film. Decrying modern life by calling it a letdown, Bastille traverses the Southwestern desert to the sound of its heart exploding.

“Back To The Future” references the 1985 film, as well as “Blade Runner,” “1984” and, indirectly, “The Wizard of Oz.” If you’re familiar with any of these, there’s no explanation needed as to why their futuristic themes like time travel or unrelenting government surveillance garnered a mention. But then on “Club 57,” the band does a 180 and ventures to the past. Recalling 1980s New York, when the Paradise Garage discotheque and Keith Haring were leaving their marks on the city, Smith wonders, “Is it love?/ Or do we just want satisfaction?”

The three interludes channel their visions of the future in varying ways, all of which are worth noting. The first, “Brave New World,” runs just 27 seconds and features only electronically produced strings as it ruminates on what the future holds. Though the song isn’t much, it’s most notably a direct reference to the 1932 novel of the same name, where mankind is genetically organized into an intelligence-based hierarchy. The third, “Total Disassociation,” features trippier music, punctuated by distortion and vibrating electric keys. As the penultimate track, Bastille is totally over it.

The second interlude is the album’s most unique track. “Promises” is performed as a spoken word poem by actor and rapper Riz Ahmed. He speaks of a less apocalyptic future, one that cherishes love and intimacy. “The past and the future lives inside the present’s energy/ So, show a little tenderness now and love flows endlessly/ Yeah, time is on a loop like the sun that’s its destiny,” he says.

There’s a sense of uneasiness yet resilience sewn through the album’s remaining tracks that feature more dystopian scenarios, such as on “Future Holds” (featuring BIM), and A.I.-like vocal effects on “Stay Awake.” Though the album may not conjure the same hits as Bastille’s previous efforts, Give Me The Future is a musical step forward for the band.

Follow Domenic Strazzabosco at Twitter.com/domenicstrazz and Instagram.com/domenicstrazz.