Fur and Gold
by Bat For Lashes

Album details

US: 31 July 2007 on Caroline
UK: 11 September 2006 on Echo

Mercury Music Prize nominee ‘Fur and Gold’ is the first LP release for the music project of Brighton, England multimedia artist Natasha Khan, who was born in Pakistan. The US release contains one extra track ("I’m On Fire").

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The critical consensus

Aside from making the obvious (and numerous) comparisons to artists like Kate Bush, Bjork, and Tori Amos and freak-folkers such as Cocorosie and Joanna Newsom, what did the music press have to say about the latest debut from an artsy female singer-songwriter? Many critics found it fantastical (rather than, say, fantastic), although some, too much so.

The Guardian, for one, is ready to embrace the freak, declaring, "Bat for Lashes inhabit a magical kingdom you won’t want to leave." MusicOMH also loves the disc, commenting, "Fur and Gold announces Natasha Khan’s Bat For Lashes as a talent impossible to ignore and beguiling to behold." The BBC lauds the "originality" of her songwriting, while The Observer calls the album "nothing short of breathtaking" and No Ripcord, "bold, creative, and unashamedly weird." Amazon also enjoyed Khan’s debut, calling it "a haunting, richly orchestrated work that, for all its experimentation and intelligence, is emotional and deeply moving." Urb admires Khan’s "extraordinary confidence," while Q concludes that Fur and Gold is "odd, but often otherworldly." And Aversion calls it "one of the most impressive debut releases of the year."

Pitchfork has some reservations, however, indicating that "as strong as Fur & Gold’s individual tracks can be, the record as a whole is frustratingly dilute." Stylus enjoys some of the songs, but notes that Bat For Lashes is "not yet the complete article." Uncut finds that Fur and Gold "walks a perilous line between stylishly precocious and painfully precious," a line that it sometimes crosses in the wrong direction with "some truly appalling lyrics." Artist Direct also has a problem with some of her lyrics, and as a whole concludes that "Khan affects the pose, but can’t quite muster the conviction and lyrical elegance the genre requires."

An entrancing, wonderfully surprising record which manages to feel both refreshing[ly] new and strangely timeless.

- Drowned In Sound

Review roundup

Tracklisting and media

1. Horse And I
2. Trophy
3. Tahiti
4. What’s a Girl To Do?
   
   
5. Sad Eyes
6. The Wizard
7. Prescilla
   
   
8. Bat’s Mouth
9. Seal Jubilee
10. Sarah
11. I Saw a Light
12. I’m On Fire

Also on the web

• Official Artist Site
• Bat For Lashes @ MySpace