Breaking Artist: Bat For Lashes

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Who: Brighton, England-based singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Natasha Khan, a 27-year-old former teacher who plays haunting, atmospheric pop. Sounds Like: Khan's ethereal, moody work recalls quirky eccentrics Kate Bush and Bjork.

Three Things You Should Know:
1. Kahn regularly carries a staff and had a pet goat as a child.
2. She studied film, which she says has had a huge influence on her songwriting and performance style, but she's no snobbish cinephile: E.T., The Goonies and The Karate Kid are movies that made a big impression on her.
3. Though her aesthetic gets a bit fairy-like at times, Kahn is a rocker at heart. Proof: She covers Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" in her live shows. "I just love that song," she has said. "It's a masculine, sexy song but I felt the words and I felt where he was coming from, so I wanted to take it for myself."

Get It: Bat For Lashes' debut album Fur and Gold comes out July 31 on Caroline Records (it was released overseas in September 2006 on Parlophone). In addition to watching the awesome clip for "Prescilla" above, check out the remarkable video for "What's a Girl To Do"-- it features BMX bikes and guys in bunny heads.

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Song Stories

“Karma Chameleon”

Culture Club | 1983

Boy George has said this song was about standing by what you believe in. However, at the time, he was involved in a secret affair with Culture Club drummer Jon Moss. "Now people can understand the songs better," he said. "They were written about my relationship with Jon, and they were also written about being a gay man in a homophobic world." The lines "If I listen to your lies, would you say/I'm a man without conviction/I'm a man who doesn't know how to sell a contradiction," described his life at the time, he said. "I was selling this big lie."

More Song Stories entries »

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