Bat for Lashes' The Haunted Man

By Etan Rosenbloom, Associate Director & Deputy Editor, Communications & Media

Like many, I first encountered Bat for Lashes (the stage name of PRS member Natasha Khan) in her Donnie Darko-inspired fever dream of a video for "What's a Girl to Do?" from her bewitching 2006 debut Fur & Gold. Here was an act swirling in dark atmosphere and sonic curiosities, but with a beating heart at its core. That album was one of my favorites of the year. And ASCAP felt the same way about Bat for Lashes - we showcased her at SXSW in 2007 and gave her our Vanguard Award at the 2007 ASCAP Awards in London.

Bat for Lashes released its third album The Haunted Man today. With its horn sections and massed choruses, the tribal thump of "Horses of the Sun" (featuring Portishead's Adrian Utley) and the reverb and strings on "Marilyn" (featuring Beck), The Haunted Man isn't the stripped-down affair that its stark cover might suggest. But Khan's personality shines through loud and clear, perhaps even more confidently than on her two previous albums. Vulnerability is at the center of Khan's music, and if that quality occasionally fought with her idiosyncrasies for attention, The Haunted Man finds these two parts of her muse in perfect harmony.

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The Haunted Man was released in the US on October 23, 2012.

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