Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), also known by her stage name "Bat for Lashes", is an English musician. She sings and plays the piano, guitar, harpsichord and the autoharp.
Khan's debut album, Fur and Gold, released on 11 September 2006, peaked at #48 on the UK Album Charts and went on to be nominated for the Mercury Prize in 2007. In 2008, Khan also picked up two BRIT nominations for Best Breakthrough Artist and Best Female, leading to growing media attention.
Khan’s second album, Two Suns, released on 6 April 2009, reached #5 on the UK Album Charts and #17 on the Irish Album Charts. The first single released from the second album, "Daniel", charted within the top 40. The second single, "Pearl's Dream", was released on 22 June 2009. The album Two Suns was also nominated for the Mercury Prize. Khan herself was up for Best Female Solo Artist at 2010's BRIT Awards.
Two Suns
Bat For Lashes at the Primavera Sound 2009
Khan’s second album, Two Suns, was released 7 April 2009 and produced by Natasha Khan and David Kosten.[10] In preparation for the album Khan journeyed to the Joshua Tree Desert in California in order to gain inspiration before returning to New York and London to write and record the finished material for release.[10]
A concept album,[11] Two Suns focuses on Khan’s desert born alter ego Pearl, whose personality she adopted while staying in New York in order to gain a better understanding of the character. She revealed to the BBC's Newsbeat, "I really just did it as an experiment of dressing up myself with quite garish extreme feminine make-up. I wanted to photograph myself in that situation and just see what it made me feel.”[12] Khan believed that living in Brooklyn while bands like TV on the Radio, MGMT and Gang Gang Dance were emerging on the music scene had an influence on the album's musical style. In an interview with MTV she claimed, “I experienced that whole thing coming out, in terms of beats and like going out dancing and checking out all this new music it was really inspiring.”[11] During the album’s production she also collaborated with Brooklyn artist Yeasayer for the bass and beat programming.[10]
Two Suns went on to debut at its peak position of #5 on the UK Albums Chart.[13] The first single off the album “Daniel” became a top 40 hit,[14] while the second single "Pearl's Dream" was released on 22 June.
Critical response to the album was generally favourable, generating a score of 77 on the review aggregator Metacritic.[15] In their review for Two Suns NME awarded it 8 out of 10 describing the album as “epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms.”[16] Rolling Stone also rated it favourably stating, “Khan proves she's a powerhouse under her billowy sleeves. She could be the next Kate Bush."[17] However some critics such as Popmatters found problems, reviewing the album they claimed, “While the weaker songs are definitely not throwaways, they miss the mark in more than one way.”[18] Blender magazine also felt the album was average, awarding it 3 out 5 stars, claiming "The contrast between Pearl and Natasha isn’t always crisply drawn".[19]
On 1 May 2009 Two Suns was certified silver by the BPI for sales of 60,000 in the UK and on 31 July 2009 the album was certified Gold for sales of 100,000 in the UK. Also, for the second time in a row, Khan has been nominated for the Mercury Prize for her album Two Suns[20] and for the single "Daniel," which was also nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for breakthrough video of the year.
As part of the summer season, following Glastonbury, Khan played in London under heavy rain on 16 July at Somerset House, and at the iTunes festival on 19 July. On 7 September 2009, a special edition of Two Suns was released in the United Kingdom ahead of the October tour. The special edition, which includes a cover version of Kings of Leon's single "Use Somebody", was simultaneously released in the United States. On 3 November 2009, the cover artwork for Two Suns was nominated for Best Art Vinyl 2009.[21] Early spring 2010 sees Natasha Khan tour South America supporting Coldplay (visiting: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico)[22], after a one-off gig at The De La Warr Pavilion closer to home.[23]
In mid 2010, "Let's Get Lost", a collaboration with Beck was listed as a track on the soundtrack to Twilight Saga: Eclipse.[24] After working on the track, Khan expressed interest in working with Beck on the followup to 2009's Two Suns, stating "He's got creative ideas."[25]
To celebrate Record Store Day in 2010, Bat for Lashes released an exclusive, limited to 1000 edition double A-side 7" on 17 April. The A-Side being a re-worked version of Howl (the original B-Side to the Trophy 7") that was recorded live at De La Warr Pavilion and the AA-Side being a live version of Wild is the Wind that was recorded at Grove Music Studios.
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