Bat For Lashes Fur And Gold by: Dan Grimsey Mon:06-Aug-07 Label: Echo Year: 2006 WB rating 56 out of 100

In this world of cookie cutter pop stars, and low-common-denominator radio formats, it doesn’t take a lot to get people excited; to start using words like ‘other-worldly.’ All it seems to take is a bit of an ethnic upbringing, a hippie headband with a couple of feathers and a penchant for slightly ethereal piano ballads with occasional references to wild animals in the forest. As quirky as these novelties may appear to the Top 40 pop music scene of 2007, they do not necessarily equate to a new indie icon, of the likes of Tori Amos or even Regina Spector.

Instead, if there is one pop star that Natasha Khan, lead singer (lead everything really) of Bat For Lashes, deserves comparison to, it is Adam Ant. It’s in their similar make-up and mystical imagery through the American Indian look, and similar use of world music elements to go along with this image. For Adam this means using two drums to sound like an African percussion group; in Khan’s it’s the use of chant-styled melodies, odd-sounding percussion and vaguely Bollywood arrangements.

Other than these sprinklings of spicy flavour, the music of Bat For Lashes is not particularly ‘other worldly’. Instead it’s more akin to Alicia Keyes, or some other easy listening, love song-dedicated, radio station style artist. Don’t be surprised to hear ‘Trophy’ for example, requested late at night by love-sick listener, despite the song most likely dealing with rape. The chorus goes “heaven is the feeling I get in your arms” which, although sung quite menacingly, could be easily misinterpreted by a couple searching for ‘their song.’

Featuring a pseudo Bollywood chant ‘Trophy’ is slightly exotic, but it’s also clichéd exotic. Youthful poetry, reasonably catchy pop songs, and a sprinkling of new age flavoured folk channelled to create the Bat For Lashes sound.

Half of Fur And Gold captures the ‘other worldly’ quirkiness of ‘Trophy’ and ‘Horse & I’, but the other half – pretty much the middle section – is Khan at her piano playing big spacious love ballads. While not as immediate as the pseudo-Bollywood pop songs, tending to meander hither and thither, they do include some of Khan’s best bad poetry. The prime examples of her mystical references to wild animals, bats – a strange, almost gothic infatuation with bats – queens, jesters, knights and other Arthurian images. Whilst Khan’s Pakistani heritage may assist in making her image appear more exotic, most of the imagery she uses to add some mysticism to her music is sourced in old English. A case in point is ‘Horse And I’: “a headdress/it was gilded, dark and golden” explains her interesting fashion choice.

But it is ‘Sarah’ that best demonstrates Khan’s mythical creationism, and also serves to provide closure to the story initiated by ‘Horse And I’. Over a background of ghostly backing vocals that go “Saaaraaah” in a spooky manner, Khan narrates the story of a dead girl who didn’t know how to feel, creating a mythology around her, hinting at an epic Tolkien-esque storyline that is never actually explained, but appears to deals with the concept of ‘the chosen one’ as the title character, Sarah, is doomed to die. The following scene is played out “on the dirty tarmac of/the tarmac of a melting motorway/She gave me her clothes and told me to take her place, her place.”

Fur And Gold deals in dreams and fantasies, which is only appropriate for an album with its own delusions of grandeur. But Fur And Gold is not a special album. It’s an album of half decent pop, and slightly more than half decent piano ballads.