Revisit of the Week: Bat for Lashes - Fur and Gold (2006)
Typically I start finish these posts with a complementary video link at the bottom, but this time I'm going to slap it right in the beginning.
The video for "What's a Girl to Do?" was my first exposure to Bat for Lashes, probably viewing it in Drowned in Sound most likely. It left an immediate, lingering impression. The visuals were fantastic, of course - besides the low-key furrybait, the general eeriness and the bicycle choreography that teeters enticingly on the border between finesse and awkward (some of those guys do flub a few of the tricks) makes for a hypnotic narrative that traps you, curious of what's to come next. But the song was enchanting as well. Opening like goth Motown with that strong drumbeat, before venturing into a seamlessly flowing stream of fog-heavy atmosphere and knife's edge tension, the chorus gaining more strength each go-around with a new layer of instruments and vocal harmonies layered on top until it sounds massive. Natasha Khan's voice coos and sways throughout, throwing purple prose minuteae like "bat lightning heart" as if they're perfectly normal phrases; through the song she transforms from a gently whispering mystic to someone who holds absolute command. What a song, what a video.
The rest of Fur and Gold, Bat for Lashes' debut, has been the source of equal parts excitement and annoyance with me for the twenty years since its release. There's no doubt that Khan made a genuinely unique, entrancing introduction for herself with it: even in the incredibly rich and vibrant mid-00s UK scene, she had a really unique voice and vision with her ethereal, dream-like art pop constructions. Fur and Gold is quite minimalistic in how most songs really just depend on a couple of specific instruments underneath Khan's voice, and some of them you could call downright skeletal; yet the way she uses them casts an impeccable mood which is the main strength of the album. At its best - "What's a Girl to Do?", "Horse and I", "Prescilla", "Sarah", "Trophy" - she translates pop music into her own musical language in such a convincing manner.
It's just an album that has always left me just slightly distant to truly love it though. Some of the material is a little too barebones in the songwriting department as well, other tracks blur into one another and sometimes it just sounds like Khan is coasting on being able to create an incredible mood and the songs begin to blur against one another in a manner that makes an eleven-song, 45-minute album start to feel sluggish. It's maybe not a surprise that all my favourite songs I listed are the ones with a bit more kick to them. Khan creates a stew that looks and smells amazing but she's forgotten to season it fully and despite leaving a memorable impression, I really return to this beyond its highlights. But still... though I think her next two albums really knocked it out of the park, Fur and Gold arguably sounds like her most unique piece of work.
Oh, go on then and let's have another video.
P.S. honestly, the Wednesday generation are really missing out for not having discovered this yet.
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