Shall we begin...
10. Sarah
Fur and Gold (2006)
Fur and Gold is the debut album by Bat for Lashes, and it contains much of the musical thesis and inspirations that would shape the rest of her work. "Bat's Mouth," "The Wizard," and the much discussed "What's a Girl to Do?"--the song that brought Khan into a sort-of mainstream, with its silly-yet-creepy music video--all have flashes of Bjork, Talking Heads, PJ Harvey, and Kate Bush. But those are clearly practice runs for "Sarah," a mix of Portishead trip hop and Phil Spector R&B that pushes the album over the edge from "interesting" to "amazing." It's also one of four Bat for Lashes songs that include a name that is the same as an extended family member, leading me to believe that Natasha Khan is stalking me (/s).
9. Pearl's Dream
Two Suns (2009)
Bat for Lashes' sophomore album, Two Suns, is almost uniformly considered her opus. The singles, including "Pearl's Dream," are moody, fantastical, and dreamy. "Pearl's Dream" however, relies significantly more on electronics, and its lyrics start the point-of-view portion of Two Suns which begins to fully embrace the concept album theme. The brilliance isn't just in the song's difference from the rest of the album, but that the difference is in a DREAM. The lyrics start as typical storytelling, but soon become almost nonsensical: "had a big machine riding your shoulder;" "when the battle was done, I was promised my son/Sun." The beat is the fastest on the entire album, and the vocals begin to blend together in a Sondheim-esque duet. "Pearl's Dream" is one of the finest examples of experimentation turned pop.
8. Clouds
The Bride (2016)
"Clouds" is the closing track from Bat for Lashes fourth album, The Bride, a(nother) concept album about a woman whose fiance dies in an accident on the way to their wedding, and her journey overcoming grief. The premise is dark, and the album was Khan's most experimental to date, with several passages that acted more as soundscapes, spoken word, or simply poems with the barest wisps of musical backing. "Clouds" may be Khan's sparsest, barest track however, coupled with the most beautiful vocal arrangement of her career. The song is designed for maximum tears, the catharsis of a woman that finally understands we all experience tragedy, but that even the most traumatic of losses can be cleansing: "Rain, I will take as a sign / Rain, heavy grace I did find / Rain, wash me clean through the night / Rain, divine, divine, divine." To live beyond your loss is to truly honor them.
7. Sleep Alone
Two Suns (2009)
Returning to Two Suns, "Sleep Alone" is the first notion we get that this album will not be like Fur and Gold. A twangy guitar, mixed far in the back almost to the point of sounding sampled and compressed, leads off before vocals and a nearly EDM drum/bass beat comes in. The verses are punctuated with seemingly random choir chirps, as Khan sings perhaps the most telling lyrics of her career: "Lonely, lonely, lonely / My mother told me, the dream of love isn't too hard to dream." A seminal work in the Bat for Lashes pantheon, the song, and its tone, would follow Khan through her career with other entries like "Honeymooning Alone" from The Bride, or "All Your Gold" from The Haunted Man.
6. In God's House
The Bride (2016)
"In God's House" was the first single off The Bride and to say it was shocking is a massive understatement. The song opens with dark synths and repressed backbeat that is closer to a Depeche Mode b-side than anything Khan was known for at the time. When her vocals come in, they're hollow, as if delivered by someone completely devoid of happiness, echoing and forlorn. The song is the crux of The Bride's story: the point where the fiance is killed in an accident while the titular bride waits on the altar. The chorus changes tone: while the lyrics themselves get darker, the harmonies turn from minor to major, and an Edvard Grieg fairytale-inspired synth loop runs continuously. We always knew that Khan could bring a room to full emotion, but "In God's House" showed that she could stop people in their tracks.
5. Peace of Mind
Two Suns (2009)
There's been a constant comparison between Khan and Leslie Feist (aka, just Feist). Certainly not a bad musician to be compared to, considering every Feist album is highly regarded, and nowhere is the comparison more apt. "Peace of Mind" uses full chorales to back-up the ending lines, which are delivered at such full throat that they almost blow-out the meter. The song builds from a simple hollow-body electric guitar and autoharp strum until, layer after layer, it feels as if a full orchestra and marching band has joined in. Brilliantly mixed timpani replaces the normal drum kit, making the beat resemble organized thunder, as a lonely tambourine chimes almost out of time and without flourish, like the child made to pick their instrument last in music class. A heavier baroque composition has never been heard.
4. Marilyn
The Haunted Man (2012)
The Haunted Man is Bat for Lashes' third album, and a personal favorite. Its themes and sonic delivery are moving, and varied, and gorgeous, and beyond talented. "Marilyn," is a song that's basically about someone emulating the famous Marilyn Monroe photograph where she's leaning out the window of a Ford Thunderbird. But unlike much of what led to "Marilyn" in the album--mostly dream pop with a dark edge, the TV On The Radio-ness of "All Your Gold," and the wonderfully strange "Oh Yeah"--this song begins, after a short, weirdly pitched synth opening, with a MASSIVE kick drum loop reminiscent of "Blue Monday." The fact that the overlying song is something like a silly love song makes the juxtaposition all that more intriguing. It returns after a brief interlude toward the end even bolder and louder, like the triumphant entrance of a Caesar. This is the happiest Khan has ever sounded in a song, and its strange combination of drum machines, detuned vocal samples, and lighter than air vocals makes it endlessly replayable.
3. Let's Get Lost (with Beck)
Let's Get Lost (2010)
Fortunately, this song was released as a standalone single, so I'm spared the indignity of admitting in bold titles that this song debuted on the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, and was probably the only salvageable part of that film. Beck's easily malleable style and Khan's delicate singing make an excellent pairing. The rhythm is delivered by a deep kick sample and wood block loop occasionally paired with claps or Atari plosives. The music is mainly a single harmonic Wurlitzer drone, punctuated by a Peter Gabriel-esque flute menagerie between verses. The heavy lifting is done by the vocals. Khan has never sounded more imploring, engaging, and fully realized as she is here. No doubt buoyed by the production budget that comes along with Beck (and a $68 million film), her voice fills every space left behind by the sparse instrumentation, and her duets with Beck in the chorus are delivered expertly. Any film would be lucky to have this song on its soundtrack five times over, and is probably the only good thing to come out of the entire Twilight franchise.
2. Daniel
Two Suns (2009)
This first single off Two Suns, "Daniel," catapulted Bat for Lashes into the mainstream (if only for a short while), and for astonishingly good reason: the song is jaw-dropping. Apart from being one of Khan's warmest and fullest songs instrumentally, it also showcases a complete mastery of lyrical imagery. The synth horns that fade-in the start provide no real glimpse into the world this song will eventually build. A rich drum pattern complete with a Joy Division floor tom progression and subtle use of percussive wind effects runs throughout the song. The strings are kept at a distance, often at an almost eerie pitch until they come into the fill the space after one chorus ends and another verse begins. And when it comes to verses and choruses, "Daniel" has some of the best in pop music history. I fear that starting to provide examples will lead to a flood wherein I just write the entire lyrical content, but there are worse things. The line "when the fires came, the smell of cinders and rain, perfumed almost everything" is already a splendid poem, until you realize the song starts with "when I first saw you, I knew that you had a flame in your heart"--the flame made fire that consumed them. "Into our mouths the tears crept, just kids in the eye of the storm" is followed by an absolutely brilliant Wizard of Oz reference: "And as our house spun 'round, my dreams pulled me from the ground, forever to search for the flame, for home again"--the storm of feelings eventually destroys all hope of a stable relationship. This is the most sumptuous breakup song ever written.
1. Deep Sea Diver
The Haunted Man (2012)
An admission: I may be putting way too many personal feelings into this song that makes me place it as Khan's greatest single effort, but I digress. "Deep Sea Diver" is the closing track of The Haunted Man, and it acts as showstopping elegy. The music is soft and delicate: a muffled jazz kit is used for the drums, while a feathery piano plinks in an ethereal loop, punctuated rarely by a bell or an LCD Soundsystem synth. But the true beauty is once again in Khan's lyrics and subsequent wordless elation. Opening with a brilliant call back to "Daniel" she sings "You came running out of the dark, with the tears in your eyes, but this time I'm not afraid, 'cause my heat's ablaze." The song is full of spellbinding imagery: "You're a deep sea diver, tides are turning in your favor;" "The moth and the moon saw a new religion being born;" "Said you'd been taken over by a deep blue animal." But most importantly is the final line of the song, a plea for whoever it addresses to not let go, to not be consumed by grief, depression, or loneliness: "Darling if you can't see out, you know that I can hear you shout." People do care. This world is not a cold, dead place, and there is always another way. The light at the end of the tunnel only gets further away, it never goes out. "Deep Sea Diver" is begging you not to let go, to keep fighting, because even if you can't see that light, tunnels carry your voice farther than you can see. We can hear you. Khan ends the song better than words could, with an unformed call, one that says it gets lighter out here. Just keep shouting.
P.S. Once again, this list was very difficult to create. A shout out to all those BfL songs I really, really love but didn't make the cut: What's a Girl to Do?, The Wizard, Prescilla, Travelling Woman, All Your Gold, Oh Yeah, Laura, A Wall, Rest Your Head, Honeymooning Alone, Sunday Love, Never Forgive the Angels, and I Will Love Again.
P.P.S. Stupid Spotify has literally every BfL song EXCEPT "Deep Sea Diver"? What the actual f***? Anyway, here's an upstanding citizen's YouTube upload. Trust me, it's worth the tears.
No comments:
Post a Comment