Fur & Gold - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Album Description
2007 major label re-issue of the debut album (originally released in 2006,) many of the tracks have been reworked on this new edition. Bat For Lashes is the creation of Natasha Khan, a Pakistan-born, Brighton based songwriter. Her concept for Fur And Gold was to make something that started at dusk and finished up in the glorious sunlight. That gives you an idea of what this ethereal, cinematic album sounds like. Natasha's soaring howls, whispers and joyous singing are the main focus here. As beguiling as Bjork, as stunning as Sinead O'Connor and as dramatic as Kate Bush, it is her voice that dominates. The often minimal backdrop of haunting strings, unusual percussive instruments and drum machines provides the perfect accompaniment. Mature gothic sounds for those willing to be whisked off to beautiful faraway lands. EMI. 2007.

Customer Reviews:

4 out of 5 stars

Worth batting your lashes for December 11, 2006
9 out of 10 found this review helpful

Great name for a band, so how is this debut album? In fact, Bat for Lashes is not really a band at all, but a one woman force of nature, accompanied by a number of other musicians.

Singer, writer and artist, Natasha Khan is certainly the lady who can. She has been compared to performers such as Kate Bush, Sinead O'Connor and Bjork. If these comparisons have any value at all, it may be because there is, for sure, something ethereal and otherworldly about Ms. Khan's sound and lyrics. A review on the 'band's' website said that this music could be the soundtrack for a Tim Burton film, and that seems to encapsulate the essence of the Bat for Lashes experience. At times, this music even recalls medieval chamber music. One could easily imagine this music being played at Harry Potter's debut dance in the Hogwarts' great hall.

This is a thoughtful, sensitive, highly original recording which only improves with repeated listening, and which doesn't contain a bad track. So even if you are not a Kate Bush or Sinead O'Connor fan and even if you are scared of things that go bump in the night, there is nothing to be afraid of here. On the contrary, it is really quite magical.

4 out of 5 stars

Great debut, can't wait to hear more! April 28, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

It's hard to find solid, cohesive albums nowadays, so I'm grateful to have come across "Fur & Gold". My favorite songs are "Trophy" and "Sarah". This is a good album to go to sleep to. I hope more people discover Bat For Lashes and I'm sorry this review doesn't do the album justice :)

5 out of 5 stars

A banquet for the shadows February 5, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Imagine walking through a forest flooded by golden light, full of mystery and magic, and the sorrow of things that are fading away.

That's sort of the atmosphere of "Fur and Gold," the debut album by Bat For Lashes. The Brighton band -- really a one-woman band for Natasha Khan -- churns out a stream of shimmering, dark, fantastical chamberpop that sounds like the halfway point between Feist and Joanna Newsom.

It opens with the dreamlike "Horse and I," with its throbs of harpsichord and marching military drums (a Jeanne D'Arc influence?). "Got woken in the night/by a mystic golden light/My head soaked in river water," Khan murmurs, sounding both desperate and sleepy. "The smell of redwood giants/A banquet for the shadows/Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark/Came upon the headdress/It was gilded, dark and golden..."

It rises into a desperate plea, as "The children sang/I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed/They sang to me, "This is yours to wear/You're the chosen one, there's no turning back." The song swells and falls, with Khan murmurs painfully, "There is no turning back/there is no turn..."

Khan does try out some more conventional songs, like the darkly minimalistic "What's A Girl To Do," a haunting, dramatic lament about a fizzled-out affair. But even then, she includes some unique phrases ("And my bat lightning heart/Wants to fly away"). And then there's "Sad Eyes," a painfully loving post-breakup song ("Keep my love as light as a feather").

Then she regains some of that more magical sound, with songs about powerful wizards, black snow, beautiful wild girls who die or grow up, centaurs, haunted forests. It finishes with the exquisite "I Saw A Light," a piano ballad that briefly swells up into a musical storm.... right before Khan says softly, "And I said goodbye."

The music industry doesn't turn out much music like this -- pop music that relies on sensual instrumentation and brilliant songwriting, rather than jiggle or computerized vocals. Fantastical forests and seas, tropical islands, lovelorn urbanites, and magical horses all somehow weave into this -- it's like a long, beautiful dream.

It also has pretty unique instrumentation -- much of it is harpsichord and strings, but there's also plenty of military-style drums, cymbals, some mellow electric guitar, trumpet in places, and a shimmer of autoharp. Khan weaves the sounds together expertly into a dark, lush, velvety tapestry that sounds like the work of a longtime professional.

And somehow it doesn't seem surprising that her vocals fit in perfectly -- she can do husky, soaring, a childlike singsong, or the half-spoken chant of "What's A Girl To Do?", where she seems to be almost conversing with the listener. Often she's backed by a ghostly, sensual chorale, which sounds like her own voice.

"Fur and Gold" is all darkness, gold, feathers and twilight -- a stunning, musically lush, lyrically exquisite pop album. Despite the odd name, Bat for Lashes has genius.

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