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musicOMH.com

Fur and Gold announces Natasha Khan's Bat For Lashes as a talent impossible to ignore and beguiling to behold, an album that, time and again, plucks one away from the mundane and offers a bewitching alternative galaxy of delights.

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The U.K. sensation weaves her tales of wizards, horses and magic in a warm bearskin coat of Kate Bush sensibilities, piano playing that’ll bring you to tears and instruments that only real musicians understand, like the harpsichord.

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Entertainment Weekly

Fur is, indeed gold. [17 Aug 2007, p.73]

Los Angeles Times

The collection offers a fresh take on England's druid-rock legacy, blending electronics with the elemental skin and seeds of drums and shakers in a sound that's both atmospheric and richly textured.

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Hot Press

Bat For Lashes' debut, Fur And Gold, is an album that delivers the listener from any form of humdrum existence into a deeper realm of dream and dementia.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Closing with a bonus cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" ends things on an uninspired, Tori Amos-like note, but by then, most will be too far under Khan's spell to notice.

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Slant Magazine

Bat for Lashes' music feels like some lost specter that has fortuitously wandered into your home and can't help but haunt you.

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Under The Radar

Despite her ear for meditative melodies, however, her most complex arrangements are usually her best. [Summer 2007, p.72]

Drowned In Sound

An entrancing, wonderfully surprising record which manages to feel both refreshing new and strangely timeless.

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Boston Globe

Even though Khan's music is not yet as ambitious as [Kate] Bush's best work, it has enough arresting moments and unique beauty to suggest that Khan is an indie songwriter and chanteuse to watch.

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Urb

Lyrically, Khan really cuts loose, switching from everyday matters to sinister fantasies, often during the same song, and all with extraordinary confidence.

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Prefix Magazine

Any other attempt at describing Khan's sound of Renaissance antiquity cross-pollinating with postmodernity--the trip-hop bass of 'Trophy' that riptides into the autoharp lilt of the spectral 'Tahiti,' for instance--falls woefully short of music so cleverly askew and oddly beautiful.

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PopMatters

Fur and Gold is not the greatest album of the 2007, but it’s certainly the most breathtaking.

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Stylus Magazine

Fur and Gold is admittedly not as strong and cohesive a record as "Wind in the Wires." At its finest, though, it does show off a rare talent for haunting and evocative songwriting.

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Pitchfork

Fur & Gold sounds a little bit too comfortable for its own good. Khan is a great singer, and her band is undoubtedly competent and capable, but the record sounds like it wants to be more than it is.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ste A gave it a9:
Absolutely brilliant.

Jon gave it a10:
An engaging, fantastic and sometimes brutal album. The surrealistic lyrics and beautiful sounds make this the best album of 2007.

Tim e gave it a7:
I don't understand the comparisons to Kate Bush. I guess because this band features a British woman that's what critic's automatically link her to. This is one of those Cat Power followers like Feist. It's not bad but please it's not Kate Bush.

Tim C. gave it an8:
This is a fabulous album. Full of atmospheric songs and some quite extraordinary and original music.

Bjorn C. gave it an8:
An enjoyable listen for sure; upon repeated listening, however, I do find some of the lyrics a tad bit cringeworthy. It's as if she's reaching for the same childish faerie-musings as the likes of... say Cocorosie, but there's definitely a less expressionistic and more literally mapped quality to some of the yarns that might fare better in the hands of a more accomplished lyricist. Instead, in my opinion, they come off sounding occasionally prosaic and forced, milking the magic from the mare, as it were. On the other hand, I do find the arrangements and instrumental choices supremely blissful, and her voice manages to effectively carry her sometimes "pedestrian" sense of mysticism. However, for love of all the boys and girls out there who refuse to trade in musings of glacial palaces, fire-hooved steeds and winged-tiger saviors for a life of mindless wage-slaving for the marketed "perks" of capitalism...I give this offering an 8. I do highly recommend Faun Fables (Mother Twilight or Family Album) or Cocorosie as a no less magical complement to this album.

Jeff D. gave it a2:
I'd rather listen to Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie, Tori Amos, Cat Power, Feist, Björk or just about anything else. For those who compare Kate Bush to this...not in my opinion. Definitely a waste of space on my iPod. Very tuneless, meandering and didn't engage me whatsoever.

Auntie S. gave it a10:
Ephemeral, beautiful, absolutely otherworldly! Nicely scratches the same itch as, and compares nicely with earlier female UK trailblazers (and obvious influences) such as Kate Bush at her peak ("Hounds of Love") & early Sinead O'Connor (Think "Lion and the Cobra" era), and more thoughtful and complex than contemporary Goldfrapp. I can't stop playing it.

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