Bat for Lashes - E Prescilla
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Free Music Notes for E Prescilla
Free Music Review: She really loves him...
Hit: 5 Stars
As Bat For Lashes, Natasha Khan makes the most alluring fantastical, darkly glittering folkpop you can imagine.
Well, most of the time, anyway. One of her more accessible, everyday songs is the enchanting "Prescilla," the story of a bad girl gone good. But in the single "E Prescilla," Khan reworks the original single extensively for a powerful new sound, slaps on a Springsteen cover, and finishes it off with the delightful music video.
The title song swims to the surface in a swirl of strings, autoharp and handclaps. "There's a girl who wants to stop/been thinking about having a couple of kids/comb a brush around the hair in the morning/to be needed, simply and with meaning," Khan sings softly, about a girl named Carrie who was "queen of the highway," but now wants to settle down because "she really loves him, Prescilla."
It's a really gorgeous little pop song, poignant and catchy and elusively pretty. This particular version is reworked -- it has a chorus of warm horns, more drums, and a slightly hollow, distant sound to the handclaps. It doesn't lose what was great about the original mix, but fleshes it out.
Then we have "I'm On Fire," the inevitable B-Side -- in this case, a cover of Bruce Springsteen's song. Only Khan wreaths the song in shimmering autoharp, violins, eerie voices and bittersweet piano, as she sings "Hey little boy, is your momma home?/Did she go and leave you all alone?" Springsteen's song is transformed into a pretty, fairylike little ballad.
Finally, there's the music video for the reworked "Prescilla," which is sort of a cross between a child's dream and a Narnia movie. We see a costumey, facepainted Khan climb through a blanket fort into a grassy wilderness, and rescue a young girl from a bunch of colourful musicians. And that's where it really gets surreal, with body-lifting winds, mystery doors, vacuum attacks, ravens, and someone being devoured by a chair.
Not many singles get my undivided attention, especially since the attached B-sides are usually mediocre at best. But there's little to criticize about the "E Prescilla" single -- both songs are heartbreakingly gorgeous, and the music video -- while not depicting what is described in the song -- is a stunning, fairy-tale-like piece of work.
In both songs, Khan weaves chamberpop around gentle folklike melodies -- lots of piano and autoharp trickling like a stream through each of the songs. The reworked "Prescilla" works well with the extra drums, strings and jazzy horn chorale, while "I'm On Fire" is completely gutted and reimagined -- and the lovely interplay of violin, piano and trembling autoharp is exquisite.
Not only does Khan have considerable presence and beauty in the music video, but her throaty sweet voice winds through the songs like a grown-up girl who's wandered into a fantasy land. Sort of, you know, what she does in the music video. And she does some suitably sweet, creepy backing vocals for "I'm On Fire," yowling softly behind herself.
"E Prescilla" is a perfect look at Natasha Khan's exquisite music -- bittersweet, lovely, and fantastical in its sound and nature. And the music video isn't bad either.