Soul Drift

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I first heard of Bat For Lashes (pseudonym of Natasha Khan) when I downloaded a song of hers from iTunes to write the ‘Tuesday Tune’ back in August 2007. Although I kept the track ‘What’s a Girl to Do?’ I did not follow up what I said about listening to more of her music. However, when I read that she had a new album coming out in 2009 I thought I’d give it a go, especially since Last.FM were streaming it for free.

On first listen, I didn’t think I liked Two Suns. In fact, I almost convinced myself not to bother doing a review of it. However, for some reason, I went back to the album & I have continued to listen to it pretty much every day since that initial listen. I have also watched the video for the first single, ‘Daniel’, & other videos on her MySpace/YouTube numerous times. The album has completely charmed me – I can’t believe I thought it was a little dull & samey the first time I heard it. The more I listen, the more I can hear the beauty of it & something different I like about it.

According to the press release, her second album is “a record of modern-day fables exploring dualities on a number of levels – two lovers, two planets, two sides of a personality” & bringing reflection about “the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos & balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence.” The album also features Khan’s alter-ego, Pearl, who is a “a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan’s more mystical, desert-born spiritual self.” There is a really fascinating interview she did with Fader which explains this a lot better than I can!

Favourite tracks on the album are ‘Sleep Alone’ (I fell in love hearing it on the BBC Radio 1 Live Session she did for Zane Lowe recently), ‘Moon and Moon’ (heartwrenching & I love the piano), ‘Daniel’ (the electronic sound & strings fit well to make this a haunting song) & ‘Glass’ (the drums are really interesting). Seeing some YouTube videos, I think it would be more amazing to see her perform this album live. I think the emotion in her voice is heard more in the live performances as well.

The epic ‘Siren Song’ is another that stands out. This seems to be the first track about Pearl; emphasising how evil & what a heartbreaker this woman is. I’m not sure how well the character of Pearl works in the album as a whole, but Khan has made it clear in interviews that Two Suns is not a concept album & Pearl is actually only a tiny part of it. When reading other reviews, they make it seem like the album was supposed to be completely focused on Pearl contrasted with Khan. If you think of it that way, then of course it would not work.

As much as I like the majority of this album, I would say that the first half is much stronger than the second as I am not overly fond of ‘Good Love’ & ‘Two Planets’. ‘Travelling Woman’ & ‘The Big Sleep’ do save the second half, but I’d say the first six tracks are definitely the strongest. Overall, this is one of the best albums I’ve heard so far this year. It is ethereal, fragile, captivating &, in places, utterly magical.

You can still stream the whole album for free on Last.FM & the album was released last Monday (6th April).

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