Fur & Gold
by Bat for Lashes
  • Record Label: Caroline
  • Release Date: Jul 31, 2007
Metascore
81

Universal acclaim - based on 15 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 15
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 15
  3. Negative: 0 out of 15
  1. Slant Magazine
    80
    Bat for Lashes' music feels like some lost specter that has fortuitously wandered into your home and can't help but haunt you.
  2. Drowned In Sound
    80
    An entrancing, wonderfully surprising record which manages to feel both refreshing new and strangely timeless.
  3. Hot Press
    85
    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.
  5. Los Angeles Times
    88
    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.
  6. musicOMH.com
    100
    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.
  7. Pitchfork
    65
    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.
  8. Stylus Magazine
    67
    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.
  9. Urb
    70
    Lyrically, Khan really cuts loose, switching from everyday matters to sinister fantasies, often during the same song, and all with extraordinary confidence.
  10. Boston Globe
    80
    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.
  11. Filter
    91
    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.
  12. Under The Radar
    80
    Despite her ear for meditative melodies, however, her most complex arrangements are usually her best. [Summer 2007, p.72]
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  13. Entertainment Weekly
    91
    Fur is, indeed gold. [17 Aug 2007, p.73]
    All this publication's reviews
  14. Prefix Magazine
    70
    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.
  15. PopMatters
    70
    Fur and Gold is not the greatest album of the 2007, but it’s certainly the most breathtaking.
  16. The A.V. Club
    83
    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.

Awards & Rankings

44
#44 Best Album of 2007

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
8.5

Universal acclaim- based on 62 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 55 out of 62
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 62
  3. Negative: 2 out of 62
  1. iamtrent424
    May 25, 2011
    10
    Bat for lashes is an amazing artist i'm glad somebody found her and signed her. This is one of my favorite album. Great song writing skillsBat for lashes is an amazing artist i'm glad somebody found her and signed her. This is one of my favorite album. Great song writing skills and amazing vocals. Her songs tell story. Bat for lashes is different for all the other artist. Art Rock and Indie Rock artist. The songs has a good feeling to it. Bat for lashes music is just wonderful. One of the best song writers. The sound is great. It not too low or too high. THe artwork for the album is really good. Fur and Gold . Every song are great on the album. This album does has some really sad songs like Sad eyes. This song is really sad. It start off sad but it also has some upbeat songs like priscilla. This song make me wanna get up and start clapping my hands. The album has some songs that has an upbeat sound and kind of sad and make you feel happy like Seal Jubilee. One of the best album out. On my list for greatest album of all time.… Full Review »
  2. AuntieS.
    Sep 14, 2007
    10
    Ephemeral, beautiful, absolutely otherworldly! Nicely scratches the same itch as, and compares nicely with earlier female UK trailblazers 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.… Full Review »
  3. sylviom.
    Aug 21, 2007
    10
    Delicious to hear alone.
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