He Plays A Hunter And I Play His Kill

Bat for Lashes “So Good”

Bat for Lashes’ fifth album Lost Girls is a logical culmination of Natasha Khan’s body of work to date – an atmospheric synth pop record about supernatural romance set in a nostalgic ultra-cinematic version of late 20th century Los Angeles. Everything about the record and the visuals she has made to go along with it is extremely on-brand, to the point that while it’s all very good, it’s vaguely disappointing to me in the sense that as a long term fan I think I’d be more excited by a more radical stylistic or thematic shift. But that’s a cheap complaint when so few artists today can conjure this sort of extreme romanticism, even though there are so many who try. Khan’s craft is top shelf, her voice is gorgeous and distinctive, her taste is exquisite, and her reference points are specific.

“So Good” is the song on Lost Girls that strays furthest from Khan’s earlier work while staying firmly in the conceptual boundaries of the project. It’s a different flavor of ‘80s pop than she’s tried before – more bubbly and heavily programmed, and a bit closer to “cheesy” than “sexy.” It’s the song in the cycle in which her character swoons over the sexy vampire man while acknowledging his darkness and cruelty, and realizing that this turns her on. She sings the verses in a lower register but shifts up to her more natural high notes on the chorus, and the whole song brightens in that sequence. But it’s not a light of clarity – it’s more like a disorienting strobe light, and if she can focus at all it’s on small slivers of the moment she’s in.

Buy it from Amazon.