Natasha Khan's voice defies concise description.
On Two Suns, Khan's second LP under the moniker Bat for Lashes, the English-Pakistani songwriter uses her flexible pipes to precisely express a wide range of emotions. On the verses of album opener "Glass," Khan is husky and imposing, matching the rolling and traditional drums with her authoritative descriptions of nature.
Come chorus, she extends her range into the stratosphere, veiled by shimmering cymbals. At these points, she is clearly striving for some sort of transcendence, a foil for the verses' visceral imagery. The strategy is faithful to the album's theme of duality, as seen in the record's title and song names like "Two Planets."
Other songs see other Khans. "Sleep Alone" is an electrified backwater ballad of loneliness. Its fusion of maraca, sitar and more straightforward instrumentation brings to mind the Velvet Underground and Nico.
Lead single "Daniel," a gorgeous and affecting tale of lost true love, sees Khan's voice shrouded in subtle echo and fortified by drum machines and a steady bassline. It also features one of the most evocative lines of the album: "But in a goodbye bed/With my arms around your neck/Into our mouths the tears crept/Just kids in the eye of the storm."
Being a singer-songwriter outfit, Bat for Lashes' strength lies in its stirring lyrics and limber vocals. The instrumentation draws from Khan's two ancestries through rainy atmospherics augmenting Middle Eastern percussion.
The decidedly '80s and moodily English synths and electronics can ring a little anachronistic in 2009. Fortunately for Khan, the music being staid is a minor concern; this sort of writing and vocal dexterity is timeless.
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