Narc. Magazine Online
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Em Burfitt discovers the cinematic new release from Bat For Lashes
AWAL Recordings
Released: 06.09.19
It’s been three years since Bat For Lashes‘ 2016 Mercury Prize-nominated album, The Bride. In that time, there’s been a landslide of political change and humanitarian dispute you’d think would inspire many an artist to produce a clapback.
Lost Girls is not that album.
Lost Girls harks to a time we’re nostalgic for; although one no less politically screwed. On Lost Girls, Bat For Lashes dives deep into the 80s with atmospheric synths (Jasmine) and Rob-Lowe-in-St. Elmo’s Fire saxophones (Vampires), swirling Nintendo-like midi (Safe Tonight) and an all-too-alike-to-be-projected Let’s Dance-y guitar riff (Feel For You).
Bat For Lashes is the nom de plume of Natasha Khan, who wasn’t going to write another album. Thankfully, she did. Influenced by films like The Goonies and The Lost Boys – where the album gets its name – here Khan has created a universe; one where we’re safe with the record in the Peach Sky and Mountains of a much-needed escapist’s playground.
Lost Girls hits the similar notes to Stranger Things, but also covers bases it missed, filling the in-between chapters of San Junipero while evoking Twin Peaks as much as the Cocteau Twins.
Sonically, the record is flashes of too-bright-sun cruising down the highway. It’s exchanged glances in the front seat, hurriedly falling in love as the world is crumbling. It’s saving your friends because, as per Stand By Me, you never have friends like the ones you have when you’re 12. At least we still have the music.
Lost Girls is cinematic; a work to behold, as solid in lyrics as in sound. It’s equal parts nostalgic and brand new, present and personal, and possesses the mark of a great record: you can listen to it back-to-back without realising time has passed.
Perhaps the most glorious lyrical part of Lost Girls is the callback from Kids In The Dark (“Let’s take it down/to where the loving starts/where we’re just kids in the dark”) and from the final track, Mountains (“Can we make it right, like it was at the start?/Sing to me in the dark”).
Lost Girls is the score for a film that exists inside of all of us, of the vampirism of nostalgia.
