That was something when Natasha Khan came around the corner with FUR AND GOLD in September 2006. PJ Harvey’s understanding of art, but more glamour, more humor, in short: more pop. The album with highlights like “Horse And I”, “What’s A Girl To Do?” or “Prescilla” laid the basic coordinates for a career that is still successful today, which also took Bat For Lashes to places where there is good money to be made: in advertising for big brands, at fashion shows, in the most successful television series from “Twilight” to “Hunger Games”.
FUR AND GOLD was also musically groundbreaking: As early as 2006, Bat For Lashes developed music that incorporated medieval harmonies and arrangements in order to then combine them with Phil Spector’s idea of the “Wall of Sound” or mild electronics. Today, Beth Gibbons and Florence Welch are following similar paths. The remastering makes listening to the album again on the 20th anniversary a special pleasure: the sound engineers at Abbey Road Studios have ensured more transparency and dynamics, especially the force of the drums and percussion elements is greater.
It’s cold and dark there. But Bat For Lashes knows its way there.
As a bonus there are demo recordings of songs that didn’t make it onto the album, and this is where things get really interesting. Pre-recordings of songs like “Dark Time” or “Carrie” sound significantly darker than the music that ultimately formed FUR AND GOLD. What Bat For Lashes plays here is heavily influenced by gothic and darkwave, by the very early Cocteau Twins, by the electro avant-gardists Coil or Siouxsie & The Banshees, minus punk.
The synths are minimalist and super cold, the drums are slow, the lyrics tell terrible stories about loneliness and abandonment. “Rosie” sounds like Björk at the Leipzig Wave-Gotik-Treffen, the chanting in the sensational BBC Live Lounge recording of “What’s A Girl To Do?” is reminiscent of the post-punk poet Anne Clark. If Natasha Khan had continued in this style, perhaps she would be an icon in a different musical world today, with successors like Anna von Hausswolff or Lingua Ignota. The fact that she included these pieces as a bonus on this birthday edition of FUR AND GOLD could be an indication that she wants to illuminate these shady corners again on her next album. It’s cold and dark there. But Bat For Lashes knows its way there.
This review appears in Musikexpress 3/2026.
