Bat For Lashes is the stage name of English solo artist, Natasha Khan, and one of my favorite artists of the past 10 years. She is about to release her 3rd album, The Haunted Man, and it is a thing of beauty.

While listening to Bat For Lashes’s tunes, all sorts of  images pepper my mind. The one I always seem to go back to for some reason is an image of the life of a gypsy; her days, her thoughts, her emotions, her highs and lows. Each one of Bat For Lashes’s songs tell a story, and they’re all crafted so perfectly that it’s tough to know what the best part is. Is it the songwriting? Her voice? The production? Or is it her brutally honest lyricism? The whole package is simply incredible.

For me personally, the biggest selling point is her voice. Each song is built around passionate, powerful vocals; which fall somewhere on the Kate Bush-continuum stylistically, though lower than Kate’s in reality. Her harmonizing is at times breathtaking and generally dramatic, but it’s always interesting; you can’t help but want to go back to the beginning of each song to attempt to uncover a new vocal trick you might have missed upon first listen.

A few years ago, Bat’s single “Daniel” was the most played song in my iTunes library. While there’s no immediate standout track that I can see rivaling my (repeated) love of Daniel, I’m really enjoying The Haunted Man as a whole more than I did 2009’s Two Suns. I’ve already heard a few naysayers talking shit about the album, which personally I don’t get; this record is brilliant and I can’t stop listening to it.

The first single off the record is an INCREDIBLE heart wrenching ballad named “Laura.” However, I’ve decided to post the most radio friendly track and latest single off the album, All Your Gold. Have a look at the sexy video below.

*Bat For Lashes’s 3rd album, The Haunted Man, is out 22 October via The Echo Label.

http://www.batforlashes.com/

Bat For Lashes “All Your Gold”

Dear Fred:

Please make it stop.  I need your help.  Not because I object to infectious songs, but because I am powerless over this phenomenon I call “bubble gum pop.”  It’s euthanasia of talent.  It also may lead to my own demise as I play that music five hundred times before changing tracks.  But I can’t help it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love lyrics that get in my head and under my skin.  Song lyrics that make me wanna dance with somebody.  Or that I (try to) sing even when I really don’t know the words.  You know THAT problem, don’t you?  When I was a wee lad in the Deep South, I thought the song “Elvira” by the Oak Ridge Boys was actually “Hell’s Fire.”  Maybe that’s more of a problem of being told as a five-year-old that I was going to hell if I didn’t memorize John 3:16, but I digress.

Tim Miller (www.timmiller.com), a friend and very talented singer in Texas (he actually writes his own songs!), once told me that the greatest thing he experiences on stage is watching people in the audience sing along.  So, music should be infectious, right?  It sells records.  It creates stars.  It moves people and makes memories.  Like mixed tapes and stuff.

However, I am not writing to you about a run-of-the-mill pop song that I’ll ask the DJ to play at the typical Brooklyn Sunday afternoon dance off.  Today, I am writing to you about the infectious song that is like a fifth of vodka in the hands of a relapsed alcoholic.  I will not stop with just one play, but will repeat over and over and over, again and again, for three nauseatingly back-to-back days until I collapse with exhaustion or the neighbors call the cops.  Last night, I think had a mild seizure that caused me to throw my iPod across the room at what I thought was a mouse.  On second thought, maybe that was a mouse. I’d better call my super.

If you’ve ever tried to eat your iPod in panic or vowed never to dance The Macarena again, then you know the kind of character defect that I’m talking about.  It’s the thing inside of me triggered by the song overheard once at the gym that briefly becomes the “best workout tune ever.” That “best song ever” after 137 plays on repeat then becomes the trainer I want to punch in the face because he just screamed “one more!” when all I really want to do is to die peacefully with a cheeseburger in hand.

I blame, not my addictive tendencies, but a music industry after a quick dollar with the next big thing.  Sure, take some cute wholesome girl-chasing-the-ungodly-hot-homosexual-next-door with a fun song about “maybe” calling her back that everyone on YouTube likes, and then run it into the ground because you’ll make a bazillion bucks while it’s still hot.  Knowing that I’ll never buy another Carly Rae Just-Leave-Me-Alone song again, the record industry will look for another bubblegum star on YouTube or Flitter or Crackbook to ruin.  While also using it to torture me, of course.

So, Fred.  Please.  Make it stop.  Because I can’t.  You know people, right?  Meanwhile, I need to get my iPod fixed, because I just got this great awesome version of a breakup song about Somebody That I Use to Know that I can’t stop playing.

Yours,

OCD in NYC 

Beth Orton’s latest release, Sugaring Season, is as close to a perfect album as she’s released in almost 10 years. While not nearly as sonically adventurous as classics such as Trailer Park and Daybreaker, Sugaring Season features some of the most beautiful harmonizing and stunning songwriting she’s ever recorded.

I’ve been a big fan of Beth’s ever since the release of Trailer Park back in 1996. She was the first artist who blended elements of folk with electronica that I remember really taking to. Her voice is somewhat of an acquired taste, but I’ve always thought it was extremely soothing; as evidenced on songs like “Don’t Need A Reason,” my favorite Beth Orton song of all-time.

Sugaring Season is definitely the most stripped down of any of her records to date, but it’s by no means spare sounding. I was a little nervous when I heard that she was releasing a “mostly-acoustic” album mostly because it sounded like it could end up being dull – BUT, I should know better than to doubt Beth’s music. Coming almost 6 years since her last release, the mostly disappointing Comfort Of Strangers, Sugaring Season acts as a proper successor to 2002’s magnificent Daydreamer, without ever sounding over or under produced.

Her songwriting is always her biggest strength and songs like Dawn Chorus, Call Me The Breeze, and the extremely pretty Last Leaves Of Autumn remind me why she’s one of the best songwriters of my generation. Each song is full of Beth’s trademark layered songwriting and is sure to act as the perfect companion to fall here in the Northeast. Grab some headphones, put on your pensive mellow hat, and have a listen.

Check out Dawn Chorus below.

*Beth Orton’s 5th album, Sugaring Season, is out now via ANTI.

http://beth-orton.net/

Beth Orton “Dawn Chorus”

Canadian quintet, Stars, have been churning out essential listening for over a decade. But perhaps their most listenable album yet, is their latest masterpiece, The North.

Stars came onto my map back around the same time that Arcade Fire’s debut did back in 2004, with the release of their politically charged stunner, Set Yourself On Fire (featuring one of my favorite songs that year, Ageless Beauty). Since then, they’ve released new music every year; mostly good stuff that has ranged from delicate piano balladry to melodic indie rock to stadium sized powerpop and more.

On The North, Stars have taken a timely detour into synthpop territory, and laced their beautiful lyrics with bouncy strings, bleeps, bloops and all sorts of cute production tricks. Amy Millan’s voice is as soothing as ever, while Torquil Campbell remains one of the most romantic vocalists I listen to. His voice absolutely melts me, for some reason.

On an album that goes from strength to strength with each subsequent song, my favorite of the bunch is “Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It” – which tugs at my heart strings every time. It features some nifty Peter Hook-style guitar work, a nice pop beat and some of the most gorgeously true lyrics I’ve heard all year. Have a listen to that song and the first track on the album, The Theory Of Relativity, below.

*Stars’ 6th album, The North, is out now via ATO Records.

http://www.facebook.com/starsstars

Stars “Hold On When You Get Love And Let Go When You Give It”

Stars “The Theory Of Relativity”