Review: Bat for Lashes – The Bride a dark story beautifully delivered

Less an album and more a multifaceted concept inclusive of an album,  Natasha Khan’s latest long-player also extends to a short story, film and series of concerts, all performed in churches. And there’s no escaping the theme: the union of two people through holy matrimony and all that follows.

Only, in this case, there’s just the bride—her optimism and excitement the evening before, then the strange, pitiful looks as she walks down the aisle. 

It all starts off a bit fairy tail and appropriately Disney princess with dreams of love and happiness—the bride's life with her man. But by the third track "In God's House" her dreams are dashed.

Walking down the aisle, he isn't there. Waiting for her love, knowing deep down, he's never going to arrive.

'Where's my boy? Why would he lie
and leave me here in this church to cry?'

The bride then has a premonition:

'What's this I see, my baby's hand on the wheel...
What's this I see, my baby died on the beach.
Fire. Fire. Fire'

And as if that wasn't enough confirmation of what has happened to the groom, the following song "Honeymooning Alone" opens with the sound of screeching tires and the sound of crunching metal—he has been killed in a road accident on route to the wedding. Dark stuff.

Read more: The day the music died: 7 strange rock n roll deaths

What happens next is her journey, from honeymoon to meditation on love and loss.

The songs are gorgeous, delicate and suitably haunting. With this album Khan creates fantastical dreamscapes and pours them over beguiling ballads. This is Khan at her best—the storyteller with an incredible voice.

If you catch one of her shows this year, be sure to wear suitable formal wedding attire.

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