Bat for Lashes - Fur & Gold
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Category: Music CD
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CD Details
Artist: Bat for LashesEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-07-31
Music Label: Caroline
Soundtracks:
- Horse And I
- Trophy
- Tahiti
- What's a Girl To Do?
- Sad Eyes
- The Wizard
- Prescilla
- Bat's Mouth
- Seal Jubilee
- Sarah
- I Saw A Light
- I'm on Fire (Bonus Track)
Music reviews of Fur & Gold
Music Review: A truly enchanting and visionary experience...
Rating: 5 Stars
I stumbled onto Bat For Lashes quite by accident. I think I saw a blurp for her on my facebook page and I was intrigued because they likened her to an artist that I really liked (I can't think of who it was at the moment) but I never really took the time to look her up. Then when I was blogging I saw a thread devoted to the best videos of the decade and her video for `What's A Girl To Do?' was listed in the top ten; so I watched it. Before the video had ended I had added this album to my iTunes queue.
`Fur and Gold' is one of the best albums I've heard in a very, very long time.
Bat For Lashes is Natasha Khan, a half-Pakistani, half-English beauty who is as original and as talented as they come. There is no one quite like Khan, but the comparisons to Kate Bush and especially Bjork are not misplaced (I'd even add the likes of Sarah Brightman, OtEP and The Smashing Pumpkins to odd degrees). She has a mystical quality to her that does call to mind Bjork on a few tracks, but there is also a delicate restraint quality to her that makes her come off a little more earthy than theatrical.
The album opens with `Horse and I', an instantly embracing track that is the perfect definition of an `introduction'. With tribal drums and vibrating strings, this song sums up the power of the entire album without giving away too many of Khan's tricks or secrets. Songs like `What's A Girl To Do?' is a marvelous example of what Khan's edge can do to a simple and maybe even overdone subject. The chorus lines are flawlessly entrancing and the nearly spoken word verse structure adds a layer of poetic conversation to the track. It is one of the best singles I've heard this decade; easy (and watch that video...FLAWLESS). `Sad Eyes' is one of my favorite songs here. The soft piano adds a beautiful depth to the song, and Khan's vulnerable vocals really convey her emotional connection to the song. `Trophy' is one of the more otherworldly tracks here, eliciting in us a warm feeling of spirituality. She also sounds the most Bjork'like here. You can add `Tahiti' to that list of spiritual experiences. She has a way of infusing her ethnic background into her music without making it overpowering.
It elevates instead of hinders.
`The Wizard' and `Prescila' compliment each other very well. They both recall the other, with similar influences yet are delivered very differently. `The Wizard' is much more restrained and laid back, while `Prescila' begs us to sing along. They very wisely are paired together here at tracks 7 and 8. It's a nice flow.
`Sarah' is a stunning and pulsating track, while `Seal Jubilee' really takes us to another world with its stunning vibrato within a soft sea of simplicity. `The Bat's Mouth' has a layer of that simplicity, but it is less engaging to me than `Seal Jubilee'. Lyrically it is intriguing and quit brilliant, but the simple piano structure is a little forgettable. `I Saw The Light' is probably my least favorite tracks here, but it is followed by one of my favorites. `I'm On Fire' is a brilliant way to close the album, taking full advantage of Khan's sublime vocals while maintaining a musical uniqueness in an almost stripped bare delivery that allows Khan to shine without any distractions.
So, I have this to say in closing; Bat For Lashes is seriously one of the most intriguing, unique and inspiring musical artists churning out music today. Much like the artists she has drawn comparisons to, she is not an artist that everyone will be instantly drawn to, but if you want to experience something (and I mean really embrace an artists vision and experience that said vision) then `Fur and Gold' is an album you would do yourself a favor to own.
Description of Fur & Gold
Bat for Lashes Photos
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Look at Natasha Khan, with her Cleopatra shawl and elfish hair, on the cover of Fur and Gold, and you'll surely have this half-Pakistani, half-English songstress pegged as the first British riposte to the U.S. freak-folk movement that's thrown up figures like Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, and Cocorosie. In some ways, that's an accurate comparison: Bat for Lashes has a way with mystique, one which elevates even quite simple topics-?the break-up tale of "What's a Girl to Do?"-?into grand achievements of ghostly trauma: "My bat-lightning heart," she whispers, "wants to fly away." Dig a little deeper, though, because the music to be found on Fur and Gold has a more complex provenance. "Horse and I," a harpsichord-led track embellished with theremin and a militaristic drum motif, is the sort of vintage-modern soundscape reminiscent of Björk at her most restrained, while elsewhere the dramatic tale-telling of "Prescilla" and "Bat's Mouth" suggest Bat for Lashes might yet develop into a songwriter of the poetic calibre of Kate Bush. The debut album from Bat for Lashes is a haunting, richly orchestrated work that, for all its experimentation and intelligence, is emotional and deeply moving. --Louis Pattison
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