Photos by Anna Weber
The photograph of Natasha Khan released yesterday alongside news of Bat for Lashes' forthcoming third album couldn't have been more different from the heavily symbolic image that surrounded her last record. If 2009's Two Suns was about the duality of self, with Khan adopting an alter-ego named Pearl, the lead promo shot for The Haunted Man alone-- a make-up-free, heavily fringed Natasha in a creased white t-shirt, hands to her chin poised to cower rather than fight-- would seem to indicate a certain starkness and solitude.
Walking on stage at the Junction in Cambridge, England last night for her first show in a year, there was an immediately visible distinction between Khan's new set-up and the one she toured for the previous album. While the old arrangement of female and male band members and stage accoutrements felt like a homely coven, a gaggle that replicated the embracing, gospel-like feel of Two Suns, Khan now commanded the center of the stage. Her three male band members performed from the edges.
But rather than induce vulnerability, this level of exposure seemed to allow Khan to divorce herself from the person who wrote material like Fur and Gold's "What's a Girl to Do", which opened the performance. On past tours, this song about being on the precipice of a break-up but unable to jump was nestled further down the setlist. The pound and prowl with which it was played last night inflected it with a certain drama that made it feel like a story from a lifetime ago. Not that heartache is something that seems consigned to the past in Khan's new songs; quite the opposite.
"This is one we performed in Sydney. It's new, and it's evolved." Most noticeably, it now featured a choir formidably booming "oh yeah," (which turns out to be the song's title), by way of an introduction to the sheets of soft synthesizer that make up its hook. It's crystalline and twisted, with a harp burble that gives way to a thrusting bass line that anchors Khan's climactic desire, "Looking for a lover to come inside."
"Oh Yeah" particularly seems to be picking up on an intense longing for physicality that was slightly set aside on Two Suns, a record that seemed to have a more spiritual focus. The sentiment of this song is more akin to that of "The Wizard" or "Bat's Mouth" from Fur and Gold. The darkness of those songs felt primal, where the regal "Oh Yeah" comes off courtly.
On another new song, "Marilyn", she trilled "Honey, you're touching a star," playing the final word as if running a xylophone stick upwards over a constellation. It's a Japan (the band) song turned show tune, still soft and luscious in spite of its grinding spine.
After all that billow and twirl, another new one, "Rest Your Head" is sadder and more ornate, with a flitting synth and a nursery rhyme tinkle. The lyrics feel like a close relative of "Siren Song", offering protection and a place to rest in the quiet verse, before thundering "keep on running" and conjuring "the big old sky" in the chorus. (Put your Kate Bush bingo cards away, please.)
"This is the first song that's going to come out. It's called "Laura". And the reason I need my breath is because it's hard to sing," Khan said. Like "Moon and Moon", it's just Natasha and a beautiful, weighty piano line. Whereas the majority of Bat for Lashes' songs with women's names for titles are laced with admiration, "Laura" picks up on a line from "Marilyn"-- "you're turning into a superstar"-- and tells a downtrodden friend begging for one last dance before the night ends, "you're more than a superstar." Transcendence is often featured in Bat for Lashes songs, and it seems that the fight to reach outside of one's personality is a theme that may reoccur on The Haunted Man.
"This is another newie!" Khan said excitedly, introducing "A Wall". It sounded like the soundtrack to a John Hughes film written by Yeasayer, bursting into a piercing cry of "Just sit still/ Does it hurt?/ Does it hurt?".
There were no new songs in the encore, but "Wilderness", a Two Suns iTunes bonus track, made a rare appearance. Over a low, undulating guitar wash, Khan sings of a group of women gathering on the beach, discarding their armor, and fleeing into the night. It's eerily calm, with just a harpsichord glint shaking the surface. The reverie breaks with the closing, kinetic assault of "Pearl's Dream" and "Daniel", though the musical language remains the same: a tongue that speaks of beauty in the dark, captured in a combination of grace and unequivocal power.
Setlist:
"What's a Girl to Do"
"Sleep Alone"
"Glass"
"Travelling Woman"
"Horse and I"
"Oh Yeah"
"Moon and Moon"
"Marilyn"
"Rest Your Head"
"Laura"
"Prescilla"
"Siren Song"
"Trophy"
"A Wall"
Encore:
"Wilderness"
"Pearl's Dream"
"Daniel"