Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

The cinematic debut from the oft crowned-in-feathers Natasha Khan aka Bat For Lashes, encapsulated fantasy, mysticism and otherworldliness. From the electro-effusive ‘Horse and I’ to the vociferous clapping of the more poppy ‘Prescilla’, Fur and Gold was a smashing first attempt at experimentalism; a compilation of strange and beautiful sounds from the Anglo-Pakistani. Innocence paved the way then, for stories of magic and tales of wizadry. Dreams were simply vocalised in melody but retained a chimerical quality. Fast forward a couple of years however, and the glimmer of fame and all its trappings have become lacklustre and dull; evident in Khan’s latest, darker offering Two Suns.

Hedonistic nights in New York with her then boyfriend whilst writing the album allowed Khan to express her inner evil in the form of alter ego ‘Pearl’ whom she describes as “a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale”. Symptomatic of the pressures of the gruelling music industry, this rebellious period was not only wearing on Khan’s fantastical ideals, but is evident in Two Suns’ every track; each one now with substance to bolster it. The opener, ‘Glass’, epitomises this revelation perfectly as Khan sings as if just waking from a slumber, “I will rise now and go about the city”, before the harrowing solo is ruptured by a surge of drum beats, racing against the threat of dawn with all the urgency of a fast-paced city.

In keeping with the theme of duality, ‘Sleep Alone’, a primitive bellow backed by synths, warbles a mother’s warning, that ‘the dream of love is a two hearted dream’. ‘Moon and Moon’ features Khan’s emotional high register set against a poignant piano arrangement and switches the mood to sad before the exquisite ‘Daniel’ steals the show. The strongest track on the album and the first to be released as a single, it embodies all the mystifying elements of Khan’s earlier work, combined with intensity and wisdom, knowing more now than she did then. A lyrical dream, ‘Daniel’, with its tribal, pulsating beats, sounds off (for want of a better description) like an acid-tripping Enya, free from hermitage and in command of a set of synthesisers and string machines. Captivating imagery of ‘sheets of rain’, hearts bursting with flames, and poetic sentences like “When the fires came, the smell of cinders and rain, perfumed almost everything” coerce Two Suns into a premature climactic explosion.

From there, the album levels off in gentle decline. ‘Siren Song’ is a nod to Kate Bush, and ‘Pearl Dreams’, the poppy ‘Prescilla’ of this record. ‘Good Love’ pertains to PJ Harvey’s White Chalk and Khan’s fascination with celestial forces is demonstrated in the rhythmic clapping, bell chimes and her varied vocals as they lurch from ethereal to muscular in ‘Two Planets’. The operatic dramatics of the closing track which flaunts a depressing piano dirge that is more fitting accompaniment to a black and white mime, may be interpreted as either ‘art’ or a pretentiously, lazy ending to an otherwise dignified record. Pearl’s attempt at self-sabotage may indeed be destructive and self-absorbed but there is more than enough here from the blonde bombshell to encourage you to give this particular bat a lash.