Track Listing

1. Horse And I
2. Trophy
3. Tahiti
4. What's A Girl To Do
5. Sad Eyes
6. Wizard
7. Prescilla
8. Bat's Mouth
9. Seal Jubilee
10. Sarah
11. I Saw A Light

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16237 in Music
• Released on: 2006-09-11
• Number of discs: 1

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

CD Description
The debut release by Bat For Lashes - the alter ego of British singer-songwriter Natasha Khan - draws influence from other female musical pioneers including Kate Bush and Bjork. Produced by Khan herself together with David Kosten of Faultline, 'Fur And Gold' subtly combines elements of indie, folk and electronica, resulting in a delicately crafted album featuring beautiful vocals, accomplished songwriting and innovative instrumentation. Includes the singles 'What's A Girl ToDo,' 'Trophy' and 'Presilla'.

Customer Reviews

We need pop mavericks
Awful name for a band but then people kept mentioning Bjork and Kate Bush in the same sentence as Natasha Khan's band of female musical mavericks, so I decided Bat For Lashes could be ignored no more. Why did I wait!
What made the early Kate Bush and Bjork records so special was their naivety and total lack of self-consciousness coupled with a wonderful, if off-kilter, pop sensibility. And it's that which Bat For Lashes have in spades.
While our two maturing heroines have become increasingly avant guard or insular, Khan remains fresh-faced, up-beat and in love with the melodic possibilities of a simple pop hook. And, hand on heart, there is not a song on the album that has me reaching for the track-skipping switch.
This is a fine record, perhaps the best I have heard in the past 12 months, that deserves a wide audience. We need pop mavericks (even if they do sing about wizards, bats etc) and Natasha Khan more than carries the torch. Great stuff.

Strangely strange but oddly normal
We saw this girl and her mostly female band at Glastonbury, and were instantly mesmerised by her melodic voice and the band's members subtle use of the weird sounding instruments and great backing vocals.In addition,they were able to change around instruments between themselves, creating some brilliant music that was in total control all times, a wonderful sound that was different but somehow familiar.

We ordered the CD from Amazon, who were out stock, but it arrived two weeks before they said it would, have been playing it ever since,just magical.

Bob and Barb Townsend

Not of this world.
Halfway through Fur And Gold's opener, Horse & I, you can't help but consider that the time Natasha Khan (the astonishing voice behind Bat For Lashes) spent as a nursery school teacher has given her the inspiration and ability to nurture childhood fantasies as a source of creativity. Dark and initially foreboding, Horse & I - like the rest of this stunning debut album - is the perfect construction of haunting storytelling and deceptively sweet melodies.

While Bat For Lashes is the spooky brainchild of Natasha Khan, her bandmates prove just as adept at creating portentous panoramas. Despite Khan's enchanted voice and theatrical presence, it is the vivid strings on Bat's Mouth create perhaps the album's outstanding poetic dreamscape, and the harpsichord highs of Sad Eyes are as potent an apothecary as any of Khan's vocals.

Debut single, The Wizard, is rife with distant thunderclaps and swirling foggy electonics, while there are elements of Godspeed You Black Emperor! chaos on Seal Jubilee and some bubblegum pop handclaps on Prescilla.

While the numerous eccentricies force comparison with Bjork, Kate Bush and Portishead, Fur And Gold is an altogether unique album. Moreover, shadowy, cobweb-draped and not a little bit spooky, it's an album that is not entirely of this world.