Bat For Lashes

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

I admit that it took me a while to give Bat For Lashes (aka Natasha Khan, with a band for touring) a fair chance. I'm naturally suspicious of wispy girly girl voices (a small rant on this subject can be read in my review of Wildbirds & Peacedrums) and she looks so much like Lily Allen that she didn't stand out in my mind for a while. Honestly, I'd heard nothing but good things, and the reviews I'd read made the album sound like it was full of the kind of music I would make (Elemental, drawing from several decades of influences, lyrically sentimental). Her preoccupation and personal identification with bats reminds me of my own with wolves; I'd willing put my support behind any other fully grown adult who relates personally to an animal in a heartbeat. She opened for CocoRosie and did an AMAZING cover of Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" (thanks Gilly for calling this to my attention!), which is hands down one of the best and most appropriate covers I've ever heard. Finally, I stumbled across the video for "What's a Girl To Do," which is what convinced me to open up. So I gave in and got the album. I've been listening to it for a few days now, and I'm still on the fence.

What's a Girl To Do

For me, "What's A Girl To Do" is the best song on the album, and I KNOW I feel this way because it sounds like a Shangri-La's song. I have a well documented love and appreciation for 60's girl groups, and the teenage melodrama that "WAGTD" is drenched in taps into that energy PERFECTLY. If it was her intention to pay homage there, she did an amazing job. I really, really like this song, don't get me wrong. But I still can't LOVE it, mostly because the lyric "When your dreams are on the train to train wreck town" really, really annoys me. I realize and fully admit to what a dick I can be when it comes to lyrical content in a song- it's virtually impossible for me to get over dumb lyrics, even if the music itself is beautifully arranged. I hear music as poetry accompanied by instruments, which puts me in the position to be disappointed more often than not.

The other tracks on the album mostly leave me feeling unfulfilled. To be honest, a lot of them remind me of Tori Amos; which is fine, except there's already a Tori Amos and she's still making albums. The album version (not the single version, which is quite different) of the song "Prescilla," which lyrically is incredibly appropriate for me right now (about a woman who decides to settle down and have children early because she's losing her faith through bad relationships and too much partying), sounds SO MUCH like a track that could be on "Little Earthquakes" that it throws me completely off. The ideas behind a lot of these songs are wonderful and insightful, but the delivery just falls flat for me a lot of the time.

The song "Sad Eyes," which is apparently her tear jerking trump card at live shows, is SO gooey and theatrical that I have trouble getting through the entire song. That being said, I should also add that I'm positive I would have loved it when I was 15, and certainly would have put it on countless mix tapes for my high school boyfriend. My attitude toward this song was reaffirmed by all the comments left for the lyrics on songmeanings.net, including the following gem: "this is song is(sic) so beautiful... apparently natasha drank and smoked loads before recording this song just to get into the sad mood... she's so awesome." OMG, sooooo awesome.

Album opener "Horse and I," apparently inspired by the story of Joan of Arc, is quickly growing on me, though. It's mystical, strangely sexual, and makes me feel a little bit like an animal- all good things. Plus, you have to give props to a song with a strong female protagonist that has nothing to do with men or their "Sad Eyes." Thank GOD. (I'd just like to add that after writing this review, and looking up Bat For Lashes' Myspace to link for you guys, I discovered that Thom Yorke of Radiohead said almost exactly the same thing about this song. I swear that when I wrote it down it was an original opinion, haha.)

All in all, I think Bat For Lashes is a promising artist but this album isn't as good as it had the potential to be. As I mentioned earlier, the theories and thoughts behind the songs themselves are typically great, but the follow-through doesn't do her writing much justice. I'm willing to bet that her next album will be absolutely amazing but universally hated by critics, and once people aren't watching her so closely her talent will really explode. I've got my fingers crossed!

batforlashes.com
full tracks on myspace.com