During the softest whispers of Fur and Gold—the
debut recording from the UK’s Bat for Lashes—Natasha Khan’s
delicate voice cries out like a child stranded in the woods. But her
worry and fear among the trees is heightened by lyrics that read like
childhood nightmares. Her voice is the only soothing factor, a vocal
apparition whose presence, no matter how brief, is impossible to
ignore.
Bat for Lashes is the moniker used by the 28-year-old Khan, who was
born to mixed-race British parents and spent part of her childhood in
Pakistan. Like many musicians, she felt the artistic tug toward music
at an early age.
“I took piano lessons at school around seven or eight, but I never
did well since I didn’t practice. I used to get in trouble for that.”
She adds, “When I was about 11, I started improvising and making my own
pieces. That was when I realized that you could communicate through
sound as opposed to just words. I started taping all my piano pieces on
my crappy ghettoblaster.”
Khan’s voice is a vibrant and lively instrument, the true
centerpiece for the Bat for Lashes experience. Her commanding range is
similar to Björk’s, but with less theatrics, and her whimsical
songwriting feels like a more grown-up Joanna Newsom. While Fur and
Gold is clearly the stylistic vision of Khan, she is helped along
the way by Josh T. Pearson, a name not too familiar to many music fans,
at least not many in the States. In the UK, Pearson is a critical
darling, known for fronting the tragically underrated Lift to
Experience, a Denton, Texas trio whose stunning lone recording, The
Texas-Jerusalem Crossroads, made waves across the pond, despite
receiving a tepid reaction here at home.
Says Khan, “When I saw Lift to Experience, I thought they were
amazing, and when Josh was singing these biblical Texas lullabies, I
remember thinking, ‘I have to get him involved.'” Pearson lends a hand
with guitar and vocals on three tracks, including the chilling
“Trophy,” where Khan turns her affections into a tangible prize and
declares, “Heaven is a feeling I get in your arms.”
The lingering haunt of Fur and Gold is visualized to
perfection via the video for “What’s a Girl to Do?” where Khan takes a
leisurely moonlit dirt-bike ride down an eerie road that slices through
what appears to be a haunted forest. There she’s joined by an army of
animal-masked co-riders who follow close behind, jumping and swerving
in unison to the big Phil Spector-ish crescendos of the song. The
masked riders act like Khan’s oracles, riding with flair to the song’s
wondrous hook of “When you love someone/But the thrill is gone… Then
I ask you now, what’s a girl to do?” It’s all very cute. That is, if
your idea of cute is being shadowed by four creatures on Huffy bikes
while on a deserted road. Think Donnie Darko, had the film
shared an odd fascination with ’80s BMX flick Rad.
“It took 22 hours. It was really intense, it was raining, and every
time someone landed poorly on their bikes, we had to stop and
re-shoot.” Khan continues, “We filmed it on real film, which needed to
be sent away and processed, but the first stock we sent off was
damaged, so we had to go back a week later and do it all over
again.”