| Fur And Gold | 
 enlarge | Artist: Bat For Lashes
Label: Echo/Parlophone
Category: Music
List Price: £8.99
Buy New: £4.98
You Save: £4.01 (45%)
New (27) from £4.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 1364
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 5.4 x 4.9 x 0.4
EAN: 5099950206407
ASIN: B000T27YC6
Release Date: July 16, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Tracks:
| • | Horse And I | | • | Trophy | | • | Tahiti | | • | What's A Girl To Do | | • | Sad Eyes | | • | Wizard | | • | Prescilla | | • | Bat's Mouth | | • | Seal Jubilee | | • | Sarah | | • | I Saw A Light |
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| Similar Items:
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Look at Natasha Khan, with her Cleopatra shawl and elfish hair, on the cover of Fur and Gold and you'll surely have this half-Pakistani, half-English songstress pegged as the first British riposte to the US freak-folk movement that's thrown up figures like Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, and Cocorosie. In some ways, that's an accurate comparison: Bat for Lashes has a way with mystique, one which elevates even quite simple topics--the break-up tale of "What's a Girl to Do?"--into grand achievements of ghostly trauma: "My bat-lightning heart," she whispers, "Wants to fly away". Dig a little deeper, though, because the music to be found on Fur and Gold has a more complex provenance. "Horse and I", a harpsichord-led track embellished with Theremin and a militaristic drum motif, is the sort of vintage-modern soundscape reminiscent of Bjork at her most restrained, while elsewhere the dramatic tale-telling of "Prescilla" and "Bat's Mouth" suggest Bat for Lashes might yet develop into a songwriter of the poetic calibre of Kate Bush. The debut album from Bat for Lashes is a haunting, richly orchestrated work that, for all its experimentation and intelligence, is emotional and deeply moving. --Louis Pattison
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
 Fur And Gold September 9, 2008
My friend recommended this album to me, reminded me of lots of other great female singers first time round! Now I just can't stop playing it what a cracking album. Ps laughed my head off when I saw the bicycle video.I can not wait to see them live !
 Hmmm... June 29, 2008
Like many of the other reviewers, I bought this because I'd heard so much about the band. At a first listening I felt it had potential, though it didn't immediately grab me. After several more listenings I have decided it's actually a touch on the pretntious side, not to mention a little dull. Very disappointing.
Love ithis woman's uniquness and mystery May 24, 2008
Please make more interesting music and songs.
If this was a debut this will be hard to beat, so i am expecting a fantastic 2nd album quirky spooky etheral strong enigmatic etc ect.
Gorgeous more more more.....
A banquet for the shadows February 11, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Imagine walking through a forest flooded by golden light, full of mystery and magic, and the sorrow of things that are fading away.
That's sort of the atmosphere of "Fur and Gold," the debut album by Bat For Lashes. The Brighton band -- really a one-woman band for Natasha Khan -- churns out a stream of shimmering, dark, fantastical chamberpop that sounds like the halfway point between Feist and Joanna Newsom.
It opens with the dreamlike "Horse and I," with its throbs of harpsichord and marching military drums (a Jeanne D'Arc influence?). "Got woken in the night/by a mystic golden light/My head soaked in river water," Khan murmurs, sounding both desperate and sleepy. "The smell of redwood giants/A banquet for the shadows/Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark/Came upon the headdress/It was gilded, dark and golden..."
It rises into a desperate plea, as "The children sang/I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed/They sang to me, "This is yours to wear/You're the chosen one, there's no turning back." The song swells and falls, with Khan murmurs painfully, "There is no turning back/there is no turn..."
Khan does try out some more conventional songs, like the darkly minimalistic "What's A Girl To Do," a haunting, dramatic lament about a fizzled-out affair. But even then, she includes some unique phrases ("And my bat lightning heart/Wants to fly away"). And then there's "Sad Eyes," a painfully loving post-breakup song ("Keep my love as light as a feather").
Then she regains some of that more magical sound, with songs about powerful wizards, black snow, beautiful wild girls who die or grow up, centaurs, haunted forests. It finishes with the exquisite "I Saw A Light," a piano ballad that briefly swells up into a musical storm.... right before Khan says softly, "And I said goodbye."
The music industry doesn't turn out much music like this -- pop music that relies on sensual instrumentation and brilliant songwriting, rather than jiggle or computerized vocals. Fantastical forests and seas, tropical islands, lovelorn urbanites, and magical horses all somehow weave into this -- it's like a long, beautiful dream.
It also has pretty unique instrumentation -- much of it is harpsichord and strings, but there's also plenty of military-style drums, cymbals, some mellow electric guitar, trumpet in places, and a shimmer of autoharp. Khan weaves the sounds together expertly into a dark, lush, velvety tapestry that sounds like the work of a longtime professional.
And somehow it doesn't seem surprising that her vocals fit in perfectly -- she can do husky, soaring, a childlike singsong, or the half-spoken chant of "What's A Girl To Do?", where she seems to be almost conversing with the listener. Often she's backed by a ghostly, sensual chorale, which sounds like her own voice.
"Fur and Gold" is all darkness, gold, feathers and twilight -- a stunning, musically lush, lyrically exquisite pop album. Despite the odd name, Bat for Lashes has genius.
A banquet for the shadows December 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Imagine walking through a forest flooded by golden light, full of mystery and magic, and the sorrow of things that are fading away.
That's sort of the atmosphere of "Fur and Gold," the debut album by Bat For Lashes. The Brighton band -- really a one-woman band for Natasha Khan -- churns out a stream of shimmering, dark, fantastical chamberpop that sounds like the halfway point between Feist and Joanna Newsom.
It opens with the dreamlike "Horse and I," with its throbs of harpsichord and marching military drums (a Jeanne D'Arc influence?). "Got woken in the night/by a mystic golden light/My head soaked in river water," Khan murmurs, sounding both desperate and sleepy. "The smell of redwood giants/A banquet for the shadows/Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark/Came upon the headdress/It was gilded, dark and golden..."
It rises into a desperate plea, as "The children sang/I was so afraid I took it to my head and prayed/They sang to me, "This is yours to wear/You're the chosen one, there's no turning back." The song swells and falls, with Khan murmurs painfully, "There is no turning back/there is no turn..."
Khan does try out some more conventional songs, like the "What's A Girl To Do," a dramatic lament about a fizzled-out affair. But even then, she includes some unique phrases ("And my bat lightning heart/Wants to fly away"). And then there's "Sad Eyes," a painfully loving post-breakup song ("Keep my love as light as a feather").
Then she regains some of that more magical sound, with songs about powerful wizards, black snow, beautiful wild girls who die or grow up, centaurs, haunted forests. It finishes with the exquisite "I Saw A Light," a piano ballad that briefly swells up into a musical storm.... right before Khan says softly, "And I said goodbye."
The music industry doesn't turn out much music like this -- pop music that relies on sensual instrumentation and brilliant songwriting, rather than jiggle or computerized vocals. Fantastical forests and seas, tropical islands, lovelorn urbanites, and magical horses all somehow weave into this -- it's like a long, beautiful dream.
It also has pretty unique instrumentation -- much of it is harpsichord and strings, but there's also plenty of military-style drums, cymbals, some mellow electric guitar, trumpet in places, and a shimmer of autoharp. Khan weaves the sounds together expertly into a dark, lush, velvety tapestry that sounds like the work of a longtime professional.
And somehow it doesn't seem surprising that her vocals fit in perfectly -- she can do husky, soaring, a childlike singsong, or the half-spoken chant of "What's A Girl To Do?", where she seems to be almost conversing with the listener. Often she's backed by a ghostly, sensual chorale, which sounds like her own voice.
"Fur and Gold" is all darkness, gold, feathers and twilight -- a stunning, musically lush, lyrically exquisite pop album. Despite the odd name, Bat for Lashes has genius.
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