Bat For Lashes Daniel Director: Johan Renck

Natasha Khan has an eclectic soul. The brains behind Bat For Lashes, her work is deeply rooted in child-like fantasy, existing in a perpetual game of dress-up. As she traversed her native U.K. and toured the rest of the world, she would raid second-hand shops for new toys. She collected headdresses and shaman staffs, trying on different hats and sounds for her stage show. But like any restless child, she’s grown tired of the game. So she’s started a new one.

Khan’s professed new style is centered around “lots of spray-painted, Jean-Michel Basquiat type vibes, clothes that are quite 80s and street looking,” as she told the FADER (#60). For the first video from her new record, she’s taken the “80’s hoodie movie” concept from her video “What’s a Girl To Do” a step further, and composed a love song to Ralph Macchio, the Karate Kid.

“Daniel,” the first single from upcoming LP Two Suns, is itself a killer track, possibly the new album’s best. She farmed the main bass groove from the Patrick Bateman school of synthesizers, and marries the 80s aesthetic to her gorgeous choral melodies and thundering tympanis.

In the director’s chair is former pop star Johan Renck, who has helmed videos for the likes of Madonna, The Knife and New Order. His now infamous video for New Order’s “Crystal” is the reason we have to read about this douchebag and “the lamest band in the world” every once in a while. Renck does his best to capture the essence of Bat For Lashes on video, but outside of a few beautifully composed shots, he fails.

Khan’s music is so incredibly subjective that it is more important to set a mood rather than try to have an actual narrative. Most of Renck’s artsy dance troupe (of “cinders and rain?”) come across as clutter. The blue-green aura effect he has emanate from Khan is pretty enough though, and it doesn’t hurt that she’s easy on the eyes. The only shots that actually work are those where he focuses on that “aura,” filling the entire frame with her rainbow tear-stained face and pastels bleeding all around her.

“Daniel” is admittedly a fantastic driving song, and Khan does her best to recreate the escape climax of her favorite 80s films. But rather than focus on the “seminal moment where they leave the safety of home and go out …to some unknown crazy place,” she doesn’t even get in mom’s station wagon until there’s only a minute left in the video.

Related article: Bat For Lashes – Two Suns [Album Review]

Written by: Matthew Ismael Ruiz on April 7th, 2009 | Filed under Features, Music Video Reviews