Songfacts®:

• Step aside, vocals. In "Rural Radio Predicts The Rapture," Bombay Bicycle Club's Jack Steadman cedes the spotlight to a brass-fueled instrumental feast. It weaves victorious fanfare with animated drumming, painting a scene more vivid than any lyric could.
• At the heart of this sonic spectacle lies a surprising source: It borrows from French composer Paul Dukas' 1912 ballet La Péri. Dukas wrote the original music for La Péri as a Poème dansé en un tableau ("dance poem in one scene"). Lyrically it tells the tale of Alexander the Great's search for immortality and his encounter with a mythological Peri. The ballet opens with a fanfare, often performed separately, showcasing the orchestra's brass section. Keyboard players Ali Jamieson, Richard Adlam and Hal Ritson, trumpeter Neil Waters and trombonist Ashley Slater replay it for "Rural Radio Predicts The Rapture."
• Bombay Bicycle Club recorded "Rural Radio Predicts The Rapture" for their sixth studio album, My Big Day. They laid it down at The Church Studios in North London with Steadman in the producer's chair.
• "Rural Radio Predicts The Rapture" is an anthem for the apocalypse, its energy both celebratory and slightly ominous. The title summons a picture of a remote community receiving news of impending doom, not with fear, but with a strange, almost joyous acceptance.
  
  "That song is a good example of where our head space was for this album," Steadman told The Sun. "It sounds very much like something for my solo project Mr. Jukes. But I think we just thought, 'F-- it. If we like it then why wouldn't our fans like it too?' I think it's quite patronizing to think that something is too different or left field for your fans to enjoy. Now more then ever we all have incredibly eclectic music tastes."