Grade: B+
When I think of mental illness, I don’t immediately think of some sort of leeching parasite — I think of an abusive relationship.
When you have something like that inside you for so long, it becomes a part of you, for better or worse.
Depression is perhaps the epitome of all this. When I think of depression, I remember what slam poet Kait Rokowski said in her poem “A Good Day.”
“Depression is a good lover,” Rokowski said. “So attentive; has this innate way of making everything about you.”
English indie pop singer Natasha Khan, best known by her stage name Bat for Lashes, also understood this. She explores it further in her latest concept album “The Bride.”
“The Bride” tells the story of the titular character, who is one day from holy matrimony at the beginning of the record. Like any soon-to-be-newlywed, she finds herself nervous about what is yet to come between her and her fiancé.
However, the Bride’s mistake isn’t fretting over the terror of spending forever with someone, but forever without him. Her wedding day comes, and her fiancé is nowhere to be found.
Suddenly, she has a vision which shows her fiancé engulfed in flames while trapped in his car. Sure enough, he is later found dead from a car crash that exploded the engine of his car.
Of course this news leaves the Bride distraught, and almost half of the album is spent with her grieving her loss. At one point in the album, during the song “Widow’s Peak,” it’s implied that she attempts suicide in order to escape the pain and reunite with her beloved.
She eventually overcomes her depression and the LP ends with her finding another person to love.
This album combines acoustics, strings, synthesizers, goth rock and even a hint of rockabilly in order to create a gorgeous concept album worthy of praise from folk legends like Joan Baez and Judy Collins.
It’s a smooth, albeit heartbreaking, recall to 1950’s and 1960’s sweet serenade music like Nancy Sinatra, Julie London and Billie Holiday.
Its vocal delivery, on the other hand, is something a little more particular. With all the astronomical and theological imagery in the lyrics, I can’t help but to be reminded of the 1970s psychedelic band, Coven, especially its 1974 album “Blood on the Snow.”
Khan herself sounds like some sort of blend between Björk, Florence Welch and Kate Bush. It’s a sound that is certainly different than anything I have heard before.
Her wail at the end of “In God’s House,” when the Bride discovers her fiancé is dead, sounds more like one of torture than of grief, thus emphasizing further the connection between the two lovers.
And here arrives one of my few problems with this record – the supposed supernatural connection between the Bride and her fiancé. Though it’s a great bit of storytelling to add into the song, it’s never mentioned again throughout the rest of the album.
Wouldn’t it have been more interesting if this strange connection was still present even after his death and haunted her even further? His lingering presence could have been an excellent metaphor for how depression never truly leaves, but is well-hidden. It feels like such wasted potential.
Regardless, there is still a treasure to be found between the lyrics and melodies of one of the prettiest and most original albums of 2016 thus far. Don’t let this one blow away in the wind.
afaulds@indiana.edu | @a_faulds9615
