May 2009

Dud of the Month:

Bat for Lashes: "Two Suns" (Astralwerks)
Grade: C

The opening "Glass" does indeed deploy what a Pitchfork raver designates a "strange mix of elements (chamber pop, prog metal, new age -- what?) magically coalesced into some entirely new genre that I wish existed and yet still can't quite wrap my brain around." If you suspect, correctly, that this so-called genre is unworthy of your brainlength, Natasha Khan will make you cringe. Compared to Kate Bush, Bjork, even Joanna Newsom, she's an etherhead, as ill-informed about astronomy as she is about love. That said, the beauteous Eurasian hippie does get a little grounded when she dons a blonde wig and assumes the persona of Pearl, who moans that she's "evil, evil," though to me she just seems confused. Grounded or ethereal, Khan has the kind of pretty, proper British accent that young men find fetching when linked to ill-informed mentions of goodbye beds and licking her clean. She has hitched her modest talent to an art-rock wagon she won't outpace anytime soon.

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(Image: Bat for Lashes/Astralwerks)