Bat For Lashes - Laura

Laura is Bat For Lashes tear-jerking mini masterpiece. Warm minimalist piano chords, deeply sad sounding strings and a melancholy brass backing create an atmosphere of stillness and glamour that is equal parts light and shade. “You’re the train that crashed my heart, you’re the glitter in the dark, Laura you’re more than a superstar.” Natasha sings, her vocals dripping with soft tantalising beauty. This is a song that deserves to be played over and over again; utterly compelling and finely honed Laura takes Natasha Khan’s songwriting ability way above anything she’s done before.

Laura is the first track to be released from the third Bat For Lashes album The Haunted Man which is already causing a bit of a storm amongst certain quarters because the cover art is a picture of Natasha de-robed with a similarly naked skinny man draped over her shoulders (above). We assume when she tours later this year she’ll put some clothes on, but if not we’ll report back as we'll be catching her at both Bestival and at one of her UK concerts.

Bat For Lashes - Laura

Bat For Lashes - Sleep Alone

On the 7th September Bat For Lashes release their third single from the Mercury nominated album Two Suns. Sleep Alone is a hazily haunting song where Natasha Khan sings of loneliness over an incessantly plodding beat. What we find rather odd about this release is that the record company have chosen to shorten the song and cut the whole of the second verse from the version on the album. By chopping lyrics so harshly it seems to vindicate an argument that the cut lyrics weren’t very good. But if this was the case why put them on the album in the first case ? If the cut has been made to make the song more radio friendly then a reduction in length from four minutes to three is pointless when many singles now hit four minutes and still receive plenty of radio play. Someone is being short changed here.

Maybe in the future record companies could charge for albums and singles based on the number of lyrics. Just think, I Tunes could offer Sleep Alone (All verses version) for 79p, the single version for 59p and maybe an abridged version where everything but the chorus is removed for just 29p. Bargain.

Bat For Lashes @ Brighton Corn Exchange

It was just a few weeks ago when we posted our review of the first live outing of Bat For Lashes for this year, at their pre-tour warm up show in Portsmouth. Now with the tour fully underway they return to the south coast and a much larger venue at the Corn Exchange in Brighton. This is a homecoming gig for Natasha Khan; during the set she dedicates one of the songs to her old school friends who are here tonight amongst the Khan fashion lookalike wannabe girls and punters wearing Bat For Lashes masks.

Unfortunately the magnitude of the venue doesn’t suit Bat For Lashes tonight. Visually and audibly the performance does not project any further back than the front few rows. Much of the gig is languid, with Khan often seated at her keyboard delivering tunes with lack of fervour and heart. Recent single Daniel should be a highlight, but a stripped down version placed early in the set lacks weight and is only mildly diverting. It is only when the band bring in heavier dancier multi drumming beats towards the end on Two Planets that the show really comes alive. Eventually the band revive Daniel for a second outing, this time powerful and potent, with clannish sounding synths and an excellent dreamy haunting vocal. These highlights are few however, not even the reuniting of the band with former member Caroline Weeks for one song brings any freshness or emotion.

Two years ago we saw Natasha Khan play songs from her debut album on a large stage at several festivals and found her music to be incredibly moving. At this show in Brighton however, be it the extensiveness of the venue or the lack of soul in the new material the set fails to be anything other than disappointingly average.

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

Two Suns by Bat For Lashes is the follow up to the Mercury nominated Fur and Gold. The debut was a slow burner, that peaked in popular and critical acclaim during the run up to the Mercury Awards. With Two Suns, Natasha Khan drops the more baroque elements of her debut and replaces it with ethereal synth sounds, tribal dynamic beats and in places a lush pop sensibility. On Two Suns her voice engages with a constantly alluring and warm tone that in places replicates the echoing mysticism of Enya and Clannad.

The cover of Two Suns depicts Khan on the front and on the reverse her new alter ego; a blonde wigged white faced woman named Pearl. The idea is that Pearl represents the destructive, self absorbed, drama prone side of Khan‘s id, to Khan’s rational nature loving superego, and that much of the album is formed around these two personalities. A concept album then ? Quite possibly. Pretentious ? Almost definitely.

No matter how much thought has gone in to the concept of an album, if it doesn’t deliver musically then it’s all going to be worthless. Luckily for the most part Two Suns does deliver, albeit Khans song writing remains very much of a leftfield style and there are several fillers. There are simple piano ballads such as Moon and Moon, the haunting beats and electronica of Pearl’s Dream and the rhythmic strangeness of Two Planets which sounds like something Bjork would happily have recorded. Scott Walker also makes the briefest of appearances on closing song The Big Sleep where it seems that Khan puts Pearl to rest with lyrics about “curtains down time” and “the last show.”

Two Suns is a well crafted slightly peculiar album, that is unlikely to propel Bat For Lashes into the full mainstream. There is however enough here to satisfy, without it ever having the same impact that the debut had.

Bat For Lashes @ Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms

“This is a bit nerve-wracking, we haven’t played live since last June,” announces Natasha Khan of Bat For Lashes. The group are at Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms to play a low key pre-tour warm up show, prior to the release of their second album Two Suns. Then follows a daunting trek across Europe and America before they finish at Bestival on the Isle Of Wight at the end of summer.

With a new live line up which includes ex Ash guitarist Charlotte Hatherley on throbbing fuzzed up bass, guitar, and keyboards, Sarah Jones on drums and Ben Christophers on all manner of electronic tricks, this is an evening for Natasha to brush off any cobwebs she has. It’s time for her to introduce an audience to her new songs, as well as a few choice cuts from the debut album Fur And Gold. The new material that the band play is similar in compositional structure to the debut album. However in parts the songs are more heavily based around keyboards, delivering a more spacey sound with complex experimental beats and atmospheric electronics. They are complimented and contrasted by some delicate piano pieces.

Just as Natasha is a little nervous, the audience seem so as well. It’s a polite and restrained Sunday evening atmosphere.“You’re all so quiet. C’mon I want ravenous animal noises,” she requests towards the end of the set, which elicits a few screams as well as a rather sinister cow moo. It breaks the calmness of the crowd a little as does new song Two Planets. A hauntingly tribal number reminiscent of Bjork, the track builds around an echoing drum beat that sounds a little like something Aphex Twin may produce in his more mellow moments. It gets heads bobbing and even a few feet dancing. New single Daniel is played early in the set, a shamanic sounding pop song with hints of Little Lies by Fleetwood Mac and Eurythmics Who’s That Girl, all airy synths and soulful ghostly vocals. And it is the vocals that impresses the most. Although there are some pre recorded backing voices, when Khan opens her mouth the sounds that come from it are both ethereal and warm at the same time. She has a range and pitch that seems natural and never strained.

After just over an hour Bat For Lashes have proven beyond doubt that Natasha Khan is a talented musician who can produce experimental exotic and slightly eccentric pop music. The world is certainly a better place for her.