‘Why does it hurt so good?” feels like an eternal pop question. Followed by the carefree refrain, “You don’t treat me like you sho-ooo-oould”, it could easily be a haunting chorus sung by a 1960s girl group, or a gothic 80s power ballad, or a 00s R&B cut: all sugar and sweetness, delivered from a place of real pain. Actually, it’s the hook of So Good, one of the standout synth-powered pop songs on Bat for Lashes’ fifth studio album.
Lost Girls, a 10-track LP that unabashedly channels 80s pop and movie scores, is Bat for Lashes at her most playful – and ironically, given it’s her first record as an independent artist free of a major label contract, it’s also the sound of unadulterated pop.
Frequent Mercury prize nominee Natasha Khan didn’t set out to make this record. She moved to LA to develop her film career, spending her time working on scripts for production companies. But music pulled her back; during nocturnal studio sessions, she composed the bulk of this album simply for fun. Inspired by the burnt orange LA sunsets and mountainous landscapes around her, Khan channelled a narrative involving a vampire girl gang roaming the desert. (Many of her albums have a filmic bent: her last, 2016’s The Bride, told the grief-stricken story of a new widow.) It’s plain to hear that this music was born out of sheer pleasure: its propulsive rhythms and zig-zagging, ostentatious synth melodies are the stuff of fist-pumping high-school movies. The cowbell-powered Feel for You is a major highlight, with its bubbling funk guitar and layered vocals; meanwhile, it’s hard to believe that the strutting saxophone of Vampires wasn’t actually recorded in the 80s. But it’s not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake: the record is elevated by surreal moments and powerful songwriting that could only have come from Khan, whether in the palpable carnality of The Hunger, or the Middle Eastern synth patterns of So Good. She may not have intentionally set out to make this album, but it’s a blessing that she did.
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