And not for the first time, we say “thank god for Bat for Lashes.”
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[6.50]
Alfred Soto: This new project by Bat For Lashes singer Natasha Khan is a dizzy compendium of the wonders of the modern mixing board: prominent bass, twitchy percussion track, a guitar riff that hints sideways at “This Charming Man.” Whispering, belting, looping a yeah-yeah-yeah, Khan earns the project moniker.
[8]
Anthony Easton: The whistling here is really quite lovely, and the sax is delightful, in a way that is slightly reminiscent of 90s cop show themes. I am not she intended this.
[4]
Micha Cavaseno: After the considerable successes for Natasha Khan with Bat for Lashes, re-establishing her international roots with Sexwitch seems like a perfectly reasonable side-project; its a covers album, but set around a conceptual theme and placing the musical direction within the hands of another. This way it gives her an opportunity to test her particular craft for embodying songs without having to come up with the songs herself. “Helelyos” doesn’t stand up to repeat listening, but it has a deep lurk of a rhythm that shifts it along at a slight pace while luring the listener in.
[5]
Jonathan Bogart: Songs based around witchy tribal chants can go off the rails really easily (ask a Dead Can Dance album track), so it’s to Natasha Khan’s credit that she imposes a Siouxiesque pop structure and keeps a Harveyesque dryness to the production.
[7]
Thomas Inskeep: Sounding simultaneously like a Tricky production from the late ’90s (esp. that shuffly beat), an Iranian folk song from the ’70s (which this originally was) but of the moment, Natasha Khan has hit it out of the park with her new group Sexwitch on this rather remarkable cover. And not enough can be said about her recontextualization of the phrase “my dark girls.” Originally in praise of the beauty of south Iranian women, it takes on a deeper, feminist slant when Khan sings it.
[8]
Katherine St Asaph: Originally an Iranian funk track, now covered remarkably faithfully. The brass is gone, the percussion and psychedelic reverb are not; Khan’s verses are English and have a bit of a Tori feel. As much as I still wish the Sexwitch project was the return of Pearl from Two Suns — it’d make so much thematic sense! — this will do.
[7]