Guns N’Roses

MUSIC
MUSIC
New Releases
Bat for Lashes
The Bride
Warner Bros., 2LP or CD
The first song on The Bride is named
“I Do.” The tone, however, is more “till
death do us part.”
Happily-ever-after fairy tales turn to
tragedy on The Bride, Natasha Khan’s
latest work under the Bat for Lashes
moniker. “I’ve waited my whole life for
this night,” she sings four songs into
the dreamy albeit gothic effort, her
dusky, smoky vibes making it clear that
what lies ahead is no rom-com. Her
voice slightly quivers as she delivers
the line, channeling the mixture of excitement
and anxiety that accompanies
a bride-to-be. It creates a sensation
that’s equal parts tender embrace and
deadeye stare. The combination keeps
the listener on edge. Is she angelic or
icy? All the aforementioned emotional
conditions apply to The Bride, where a
wedding leads to new beginnings. Only
here, the journey doesn’t apply to a life
together but instead concerns lessons
on love, solitude, and desire.
The Bride, Khan has described,
is something of a soundtrack to a film
that does not yet exist. The tale: A
bride, on her wedding day, gets left
at the altar after her fiancé perishes in
a car accident. Without her lover, she
opts to go on the honeymoon alone.
On the surface, Khan has crafted
a dreary, minimalistic character
study. Violins creak like
door hinges in the wind, ghostly
laments unfold on pianos,
and nervous, synthetic beats
skitter like a racing heart. Fun
stuff? Maybe not, but The Bride
is powerful—a lights-down-low
road album about the path
to self-discovery. Khan’s first
album in four years, it also
stands as her most focused,
intermixing the fantastical theatricality
of her early works with
the piercing rawness of her
more recent compositions.
Rather than center on the
heartbreak, Khan asks ques-
tions about what it means to
love, what it means to lose,
and if a storybook ending is
even a possibility—or should
be. “I don’t want to waste my
time putting on dresses and
drinking wine,” she sings amid
starlight strings and spacious
handclaps on “In Your Bed.”
Who needs love, it seems to
say, when we have tonight?
Like this year’s Savages Adore
Life album, Khan has crafted
a set that centers on guilt
and passion. In contrast to
the former record’s clenchedfist
approach, Khan aims for
something more spiritual and
otherworldly.
The chirpiness of “I Do”
feels built around the plucking
of a forest harp. It’s as beautiful
and naïve as the opening
of “Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs.” At the other extreme,
the soft pulse of “Joe’s Dream”
burns beneath a stark bluesy
guitar, its view of love more
damning. Songs contradict, as
Khan seems to grapple with
the idea of hopeless romanticism
in our cynical times. While
“Honeymooning Alone” could
probably do without the carcrash
sounds in its opening
moments, the song’s stutterstop
rhythm brings it into “Twin
Peaks” territory while a backing
choir passes judgment first and
harmonizes second. (continued)
©Photo by Eliot Lee Hazel
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TONE AUDIO NO.78
AUGUST 2016 37