Album Review: Bat For Lashes - The Haunted Man

Creativity can be born from many things. English songstress Natasha Khan, better known as Bat For Lashes, found the inspiration for this, her third studio album, from Thom Yorke – as you do. After a demanding tour, the end of the relationship that inspired 2009's Two Suns, and an epic case of writer's block, Khan was ready to give up songwriting altogether. But a desperate call to Yorke left her with this advice – draw. Drawing, gardening, dancing and hallucinogens, among other new experiences, were the creative stimulus behind The Haunted Man, Khan's most personal album to date.

Driven almost entirely by her voice, The Haunted Man trades in Bat For Lashes' signature atmospheric and colourful layers for a much more minimalistic sound. The 11 songs feature some amazing collaborations with Beck, Portishead's Adrian Utley, TV On The Radio's Dave Sitek and PJ Harvey collaborator Rob Ellis. Lead single Laura was co-written with Justin Parker (Lana Del Rey's Video Games) and has a spine-tingling simplicity, consisting only of Khan's striking voice and a simple piano line. It is a hauntingly beautiful album highlight. In Oh Yeah, Khan combines the seemingly impossible – a hip hop drum beat, a male choir and flanged guitars – and it works. The song finishes with a purposeful piano outro and is a perfect showcase for her impressive innovation. There is an unnameable quality in the songs of Bat For Lashes that casts her aside from the clutter of mainstream music, and whatever it is, it hasn't been compromised here.

The Haunted Man's cover art has been generating almost as much hype as the record so it would be amis not to mention it; but hey, check that out in your own time.