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Two Suns is nearly as graceful and poetic as Bat for Lashes' best work; it's just that the album's massive concepts and sounds require a little more time and patience to unravel to get to the songs' hearts.
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Alternative PressPsychedelic experimentalists Yeasayer add more beats than last time, but nothing that overpowers Khan's out-there mindset, stunning vocals and obvious talents. [May 2009, p.114]
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The contrast between Pearl and Natasha isn’t always crisply drawn, but a central conviction animates both.
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No question this is meant to be a haunting mood piece, and her gorgeous voice--somewhere between Björk and Tori Amos, to name the obvious referents--makes up in some part for what's lacking in dynamics and compelling hooks.
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Anyways, ignore the write-ups (uh, except this one), which won’t be able to help quoting all the spiritual mumbo jumbo about dualism, and enjoy what seems, to me, unstated genre practice at play on a very large stage.
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Another unique and compelling album of mystical indie-rock with shimmering vocals, proving she not only has a voice to be reckoned with, but is a voice to be reckoned with.
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While her second album is frequently more drama than action, over the long haul, the magical world she creates is one worth being immersed it.
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This record is one made with the artist’s full investment, every ounce of heart and soul poured into it visible for all to see.
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Suns is slightly less immediate, but the Brit's floaty vocals and pagan-princess themes still bewitch.
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Welcome to the (haunted) house of fun.
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The slightly pretentious concept, though, is balanced by the equally lavish music and specifically Khan's voice.
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MojoWhile Two Suns almost inevitably finds Natasha Khan caught between the rock of artistic muse and the hard place of major label rockability, there's still invention and charisma enough here to keep both leftfield chin-stroker and ingenue fan onside for now. [Apr 2009, p.106]
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She has hitched her modest talent to an art-rock wagon she won't outpace anytime soon.
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Two Suns is a dense, intricate album that features at least six brilliant songs, two of which are pure pop gems.
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Two Suns is epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms.
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Khan is a fantastic package and a good, if not as maverick as some believe, songwriter. In a year when no one wants to sing about making a cup of tea, she's just the ticket.
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An easy (if slightly front-loaded) listen that Khan performs effortlessly.
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A significant step forward from her debut, Two Suns is home to some of the year's most thrilling music so far.
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While the weaker songs are definitely not throwaways, they miss the mark in more than one way.
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It’s the ultimate inner battle of good and evil, one that even the best of us wrestle with when making ourselves vulnerable to the entanglements and snares of love, and one that Khan has found her most confident and enthralling voice in yet.
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Q MagazineTwo Suns is an intoxicating, addictive album, a step on from "Fur And Gold" a leap into a galaxy of its very own. [May 2009, p.118]
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Pounding on pianos, cranking out delicate little click-clack beats and shivering through choruses with an ultraromantic soprano, Khan proves she's a powerhouse under her billowy sleeves.
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Dark, but never needlessly so, Two Suns offers a rich, distinct world of subterranean lullabies, spacey timbres, and ghostly beauty.
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Two Suns is the rare concept album that's better for the bedroom than for bong hits.
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Two Suns then is everything it could have been--a worthy follow up to Bat For Lashes’ Mercury nominated Fur & Gold... and so much more. Here and now, take a trip, you just may come out enchanted.
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Khan’s sublime voice easily distracts from any lyrical ponderousness, and it lends even lines about “diamonds burning through rainbows” a dreamy sort of sense.
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Two Suns rarely ventures into anything truly experimental; when it does, as in the maelstromic beat of 'Siren Song' or the Scott Walker cameo in album closer 'The Big Sleep,' it makes you curious as to what Khan could deliver if she weren't so committed to her "studenty" (in the UK sense) affectations.
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Two Suns is fantastic as well as fantastical.
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The joy of "Fur and Gold" has vanished and taken some of Khan’s potential with it. This is request for their safe return, no questions asked.
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UncutThough the production has improved, there's still a certain lyrical flimsiness and a sense that, enjoyable and stylish as Two Suns is, it's still just horsing around in the dressing-up box of '80s pop, in a way that's more Might Boosh than Kate Bush. [May 2009, p.77]
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Under The RadarTwo Suns is another pitch-black dream world, with Khan's production touches helping paint her enchanting pictures. Color me enchanted. [Spring 2009, p.64]
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Two Suns doesn’t have to parade itself around as a concept album to prove that music has always been, and always should be, about telling a story, as Khan does here.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 74 out of 81
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Mixed: 4 out of 81
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Negative: 3 out of 81
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Aug 11, 2011
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Apr 16, 2011
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Sep 11, 2019One of my all time favorite albums.
The sounds just takes you to another world, one of magic, darkness, love, hope and desire.