After taking a hiatus from releasing music in 2020, alternative pop/folk project Bat For Lashes returns with the lead single and title track to her comeback album, The Dream of Delphi, out May 31 via Mercury KX. Known primarily for her 2009 album Two Suns, singer-songwriter Natasha Khan named her new album after her daughter Delphi, who was born during quarantine in 2020.
Through the experience of having her first child, Khan approached her new material with a new outlook on motherhood and our relationship with nature. “The Dream of Delphi” does just that, capturing the transcendent and transformative experience of childbirth with production that begins as ambient folk music and closes on rapturous electronic instrumentation.
Underscored by electronic keys acting as the track’s beating heart, “The Dream of Delphi” embraces an ethereal ambiance populated by fluttering strings and rumbling bass pulses. Khan, singing impassionately about her daughter, is right at home with the choir of instruments that grow grander as the song progresses.
Everything culminates during the climax, unexpectedly becoming an all-out electronic assault led by distorted drums and background textures fitting for a dystopian movie’s soundtrack. The switch-up comes left of center but captures an emotional complexity already present in Khan’s vocals.
Shot during the freezing winter temperatures, the music video for “The Dream of Delphi” finds Khan moving between warm, otherworldly settings. Directed by Freddie Leyden, the video features lush images fitting for the song, with Khan at first dancing by herself on a bright beach before being joined by dancers in a dark church.
Given the new spellbinding visuals, it’s no surprise that a short film inspired by the album will also be released sometime in the future. That, on top of the new album and a six-date UK tour in the summer, makes the five-year gap between albums worth the wait. But Khan is also keeping in mind everything that’s happening in the world.
“I count myself very privileged to be able to create an album about the profound experience of motherhood,” said Khan on her Instagram. “There is immense suffering in the world, and it is not lost on me that at this raw and poignant moment, I am releasing a piece of work about the sanctity of childhood; healing our inner child, the collective mother wound and the importance of universal connectedness.”
Words: David Sosa
“The Dream of Delphi” by Bat For Lashes is out on streaming services. For more on her upcoming album and tour dates, follow her on Instagram and her website.
