Album Review: Bat For Lashes – Lost Girls

Natasha Khan's fifth Bat For Lashes album comes after her move from the UK to LA. Lost Girls finds Khan taking a late-night drive in a convertible through the plot of an '80s coming-of-age flick with supernatural twists. Perhaps taking her cue from the Stranger Things soundtrack, Khan’s synths on this album are unashamedly '80s-inspired. 

The album follows the adventures of Nikki Pink and her gang of vampire girls through a neon-lit, night-time adventure land of swaying palm trees, cool sea breezes and cocktails with strangers in all-night bars. 

Khan has always immersed her listeners in dream worlds but Vampires comes with an exquisite sax solo that dreams up a strange and surreal vibe that brings to mind David Lynch. Although she leads us through shades of noir, Khan is far too romantic and heartbroken to be any kind of femme fatale.

More playful in tone than the dark melancholy of her last album The Bride, Khan's gothic imagination provides the dark undercurrents that steer this album.