The new Bat for Lashes song is very good indeed. Very, very good. It's called Glass and appeared on all the usual MP3 streaming suspects at the end of last week, although I think it was Pitchfork who got to punch the air and exclaim 'FIRST!!!11'
I've listened to Glass a few times, and have to stop now in case I implode from anticipation of her second album, Two Suns. Glass is an evocative and exotic song full of gemstone imagery and dizzying vocals similar to Kate Bush. The opening lines - 'I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets' - are taken from the Song of Solomon (chapter 3, verse 2 if you must know). I'm no Biblical scholar, but I do know that the Song of Solomon is the book of the Bible that celebrates the earthly pleasures of sexual love. Blimey. I don't remember that one being mentioned during school assemblies (my primary and secondary education was Church of England).
Bat for Lashes' (aka Natasha Khan) debut album, Fur And Gold, was a mainly DIY affair of vocals, handclaps and walking sticks. I loved it dearly, but I'm excited about the leap forward that Two Suns will probably be. Production-wise, Glass has a much bigger budget and is full of amazing organ, fuzzy bass and crystalline guitars. And those tribal drums! Wowzers. If Fur And Gold was a cool, low-budget indie flick then Two Suns will be the Hollywood blockbuster. That's not a very good analogy because Hollywood blockbusters are usually market researched into a pile of lowest-common denominator slush, but Natasha Khan is a massive creative talent. One of the best albums of 2009? Probably. And I won't even get to hear it until April. Boo.
Monday, 9 February 2009
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