Why don't we have a thread on Bat for Lashes?

she can basically be dismissed with the words "you, sir, are no kate bush"

After four or five listens I can safely say that I like Two Suns more than at least 62% of Ms. Bush's studio albums. This record is aces.

this mention of Chippendale is intriguing me...

had assumed this was some OMM bollocks

I assumed this was some lame indie shit that I wouldn't like, I should probably stop doing that

'cuz I'm loving this right now

well the song "Daniel," haven't heard the album yet.

Well, I agree that she's not yet at the level of Kate Bush or Tori Amos or Bjork, but if you hold all new music to the standard of the best existing music with which it has any common elements, then you'll never like much.

I agree.

"Daniel" is really great, haven't heard the full album yet. But am curious.

Heard a couple other songs and I think she's alright. Strange no one seems to have mentioned the Siouxsie influence, it's pretty clearly there.

I'm just saying that this sort of thing is very very difficult to do well and those who do tend to be pretty spectacularly talented.

There are many spectacularly talented songstresses that don't pull it off. Usually the issue isn't talent, but an excess of "tasteful" influences that consign the whole into the category of "don't need to hear this" or "music for my mother"...

ilxor is right: what pulls BfL back from that abyss is that she has spent her youth immersed in the kind of music I myself did. And Siouxsie is definitely one of them. I heard it first in the chorused bass on the first album, but that soundworld of early-80's production is all over the two.

general prettiness throughout this but nothing else to say about it really. I suppose her voice is too unremarkable compared to the supposedly similar artists mentioned above, and that's a flaw depending on your outlook.

'Two Planets' stands out for me but why that plus 'Moon And Moon' if calling the album Two Suns?

Goes with 'two-hearted dream', Natasha and alter-ego (see back cover), etc.

The best parts on this are where she strikes out and sounds different, the drums on Glass are what hooked me almost immediately. I expected a starbucks till album and it was a smack across the face for being too jaded. There's at least four or five tracks here where she totally confounds expectations and they're just really great little moments. Considering that I really disliked her last album hearing something like Siren Song completely floored me.

Yes, Siren Song is the pefect example. I didn't care too much for her last album as well, but I simply can't stop listening to the new one. There's so many great tunes, brought with such sincerity, such honesty. It really is a surprise for me to like this so much.

streaming this today and really feeling it for some reason. some of the comments upthread about how high the bar is for this type of music totally make sense but right now i'm not even that down on it when she's missing the mark.

I think the Tori Amos-esque "ballads" on the album (see: track 3) don't work nearly as well as the more upbeat, inventive material that is reminiscent of Kate Bush, Siouxsie, Bjork, etc. Overall it's a damn good listen, I just find myself tempted to hit SKIP on the slower material sometimes.

i listened to 5 songs and the obvi bjork rip two planets was def the worst for me. it's weird because i'm only occasionally into kate bush or bjork and have no use for tori (never really listened to siouxsie). so like am i just feeling this album today or is it something i'll actually listen to a good amount?

some of the songs are slower, but i think the sequencing makes up for that a little bit.

the songs might be a bit more molasses than you'd like, but i'm finding there are elements to them that keep things fresh. her vocals can be particularly unpredictable... like "peace of mind" blew me away the first time i heard it. "siren song" starts off slow, but the piano picks it up to almost a whirlwind pace.

also, the bass-line on "pearl's dream" is awesome.

just thought i'd throw that last bit in there.

i don't really get the "sounds too much like kate, bjork" business. i can hear it, sure, but since when were ilxors incapable of divorcing something they're listening to from it's influences? it reads more like lazy criticism.

the fact that you have to juxtapose kate bush and bjork to even come close at describing khan's music sounds more like a compliment than anything else to me. bjork alone has an expansive sound that you really can't pin down. so then how can you say that khan is too derivative when bjork doesn't have a definitive sound?

The only track that sounds Bjork-like to me is "Two Planets," and I think it's partly in the percussive elements and partly in her voice, which takes on a strangely Bjork-ish tone here and there. It doesn't sound like the Sugarcubes or "It's Oh So Quiet" or anything from Medulla, but I could see it as an album track from, say, Homogenic.

"Glass" kicks ass

She/ they were GREAT on Letterman tonight.

made me forget I was watching Letterman on a Fri night right before my bday.

But I digress. Dsniel obv, and just amazing sound. Additional hot chicks (Natasha is BANGIN) playing guitar and huge kettle drum kit. Guy playing the awesome synth parts but annoyingly dressed like Win Butler in a D&G fashion ad.

i really, really love both of these records, one of my favorite discoveries in recent times, can't believe I hadn't heard the first one until the past month. I like the ballads as well, they do sound a bit like tori but they're really good so I'm not going to complain

it was a really really amazing performance

Letterman was loving it too

that was good

yeah that performance sold it for me.

drummer looks like the chick from new young pony club, can anyone confirm/deny

It was announced in March 9 that Sarah Jones will also be drumming on tour with Bat For Lashes.

Saw that Letterman performance last night, just amazing.

I've started being interested in Bat For Lashes, but I fear that I might be only interested her in the same way I am interested in Lily Allen. But I have heard one song by her ("What's a Girl to Do?"), and thought it showed a certain promise.

It's decent, but it's even better if you sing The Cure's "A Forest" over the top of it.

I assumed this was some lame indie shit that I wouldn't like, I should probably stop doing that

― P is for Pussy (The Brainwasher), Sunday, April 12, 2009 2:58 AM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

'cuz I'm loving this right now

― P is for Pussy (The Brainwasher), Sunday, April 12, 2009 2:58 AM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

well the song "Daniel," haven't heard the album yet.

― P is for Pussy (The Brainwasher), Sunday, April 12, 2009 2:59 AM (4 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^^^^^^

Haha, not only the "ballads" are Tori inflected, though. I totally hear Tori on "Pearl's Dream" ("Girl," anyone?) ...

Such a shame Tori has made it so taboo to be publicly liked nowadays. :(

Good job throwing me off the trail on this one ILM. Currently trying not to play the shit out of it, failing dismally.

I saw her last night in SF, she and band were amazing. If the tour isn't already over or sold out, see her.

i finally heard this chick last night -- on KCRW, which makes sense. dunno if the song was typical of all her music, but it sounded like sarah maclachlan singing over a mediocre new order track.

that might be one way to put it, and yet, the result is GRATE

Finally got around to giving this lady a listen. Not only did I like Two Suns right away, but it also happens to be exactly the kind of music I've felt like listening to lately. Didn't realize she had a previous album.

I'd like to go see her live, but she's playing the same night as the Cult and I already have tickets...argh.

Have ignored this up til now because of the name of the band, but finally checked it out when I saw the list of Mercury Prize nominees with YouTube links over at Idolator. "Daniel" was doing it for me until I realized it was because I love "A Forest", and this is essentially that with Feist-vocals over top. Much of the rest of the album seems like modernized Fairport Convention or something. Not sure how much I'm enjoying this apart from the appreciating-the-influence game, ultimately.

Yeah she did a cover of a Forest recently and I retrospectively realized that was a bit of a template for this album. Still love it though

I actually like this a lot more than I expected to!

i finally got a bit sick of this album after listening to it non-stop for about three months.

Recommend the Death Metal Disco Scene remix of Daniel. Came out in March but I've only just discovered it.You can find it on mp3 blogs like Ohh! Crapp - amazing DFAish bassline, Detroit string stabs and euphoric vocal loops.

every time I play this album, I like it more

ditto the first album btw

There’s no doubt, in my mind, that Bat for Lashes’ Natasha Khan is one of this year’s biggest breakout music stars. Her second album, Two Suns, has actually exceeded the massive pre-release hype and her image has proven to be much more integral to her authentic aesthetic than the marketing gimmick that it first seemed to me. Now that she’s earned the buzz, let’s hear what Khan has to say about a few other top artists.

As if I wasn’t jealous of Khan enough, she told the Guardian she saw Michael Jackson in concert at nine years old. She was thrilled with Michael at the time, of course, but not so much with this year’s mainstream pop obsession: “People like (Michael Jackson) just have a high voltage running through them and you don’t see it very often. Compare it now to Lady Gaga or whatever – the latest all-singing, all-dancing sensation – and it’s like, ‘No! Not happening.’ It’s just bollocks.”

I’ve read of a bunch of interviews with Khan where she was very careful not to step on anyone’s toes, but those days are over: “I’m getting fucking tired of people saying that I sound like Tori Amos just because I play the piano,” she said. “It’s just so shallow and weird and inaccurate.”

It's... not inaccurate, though, Ms. Tasha Fierce. I can think of at least five or six instances in which she directly lifts from (early, non-Stepford Wife) Tori in this recent album. Not a bad thing... but yeah, like lex said upthread, she thinks she's crazier than she is.

i finally heard this chick last night -- on KCRW, which makes sense. dunno if the song was typical of all her music, but it sounded like sarah maclachlan singing over a mediocre new order track.

― ultimate sushi baller move (get bent), Sunday, June 14, 2009 10:00 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

^^^

Well, it's September and this is still the best album of the year. Which is a little bit surprising and disappointing.