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Two Suns
Two Suns is the second studio album by English singer Natasha Khan, known professionally as Bat for Lashes. It was released on 6 April 2009 by The Echo Label and Parlophone. The album was produced by Khan herself and David Kosten (who also worked on her debut album Fur and Gold), and features collaborations with members of Yeasayer and Scott Walker. Two Suns was recorded in segments in California, New York City, London, Brighton and Wales.
Upon its release, Two Suns was met with positive reviews from most critics. Additionally, it was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2009, Khan's second nomination after Fur and Gold in 2007. On 31 July 2009, Two Suns was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It debuted at number two on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart and has sold 56,000 copies in United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. As of June 2012, the album had sold 250,000 copies worldwide.
According to the accompanying press release, Two Suns is "a record of modern-day fables exploring dualities on a number of levels—two lovers, two planets, two sides of a personality", bringing reflection about "the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence." In Two Suns, Khan also presents an alter ego named Pearl, described by the press release as "a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self." The dress worn on the cover is a collaboration between Khan and designer Alexander McQueen.
According to Khan, "Two Suns is about human relationships and the use of illusion to try to see beautiful things during a hard time." It was inspired by her break-up with Will Lemon, who she met while recording her debut album, Fur and Gold. The album "takes you through this whole journey, all the way to the end of the relationship and the end of making the record. So it's kind of like this strange, synonymous cycle that happened. And then obviously the album's called Two Suns, so there's this kind of like "two planets" situation. Just the whole theme of planets chasing each other, you know, night and day chasing each other eternally, and being in England and New York and being separated by an ocean, and lots of different types of landscapes, different types of personalities, and internal conflict."
The recording of Two Suns began in 2008 and took five months to complete. It was written and recorded around the world, from Big Sur and the Joshua Tree desert in California to the rolling Welsh countryside and the city sprawls of New York and London.
When Khan started to work on the album, she set out to make an album that was "vocally stronger" than Fur and Gold, with "more lush electronic sounds and tribal rhythms". She believed that living in Brooklyn when bands such as TV on the Radio, MGMT and Gang Gang Dance were emerging on the music scene had an influence on the album's musical style.
Khan stated that she began working on the album with the intention of not compromising her artistic vision. She said, "I went to the recording studio and told the record company that they weren’t allowed to come. I got one email about feedback, asking me to drop certain tracks, and I said no." When she played the finished album to the record company Parlophone, she wasn't present, but she did receive some feedback. "They said, ‘Natasha, you’ve made a great album.’ But there were a few mutterings around like, ‘Natasha you’ve made a great album, but what are we going to do with it? Radio aren’t going to play it, y’know?’ They were happy for me on an artistic level, but I made their job a lot harder."
"Daniel" was released on 1 March 2009 as the album's lead single, reaching number 36 on the UK singles chart. Both "Siren Song" and the 909s in DarkTimes mix of "Sleep Alone" were featured in the first season of the American television series The Vampire Diaries, while only the latter was included on the series' soundtrack album. the instrumental version of "Siren Song" was also used in Season 15 of Top Gear, in Episode 3, as well as the tribute to Ayrton Senna. The song "Glass" was used in the trailer for the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.
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Two Suns
Two Suns is the second studio album by English singer Natasha Khan, known professionally as Bat for Lashes. It was released on 6 April 2009 by The Echo Label and Parlophone. The album was produced by Khan herself and David Kosten (who also worked on her debut album Fur and Gold), and features collaborations with members of Yeasayer and Scott Walker. Two Suns was recorded in segments in California, New York City, London, Brighton and Wales.
Upon its release, Two Suns was met with positive reviews from most critics. Additionally, it was shortlisted for the Mercury Prize in 2009, Khan's second nomination after Fur and Gold in 2007. On 31 July 2009, Two Suns was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), for shipments of 100,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It debuted at number two on Billboard's Heatseekers Albums chart and has sold 56,000 copies in United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. As of June 2012, the album had sold 250,000 copies worldwide.
According to the accompanying press release, Two Suns is "a record of modern-day fables exploring dualities on a number of levels—two lovers, two planets, two sides of a personality", bringing reflection about "the philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence." In Two Suns, Khan also presents an alter ego named Pearl, described by the press release as "a destructive, self-absorbed, blonde, femme fatale of a persona who acts as a direct foil to Khan's more mystical, desert-born spiritual self." The dress worn on the cover is a collaboration between Khan and designer Alexander McQueen.
According to Khan, "Two Suns is about human relationships and the use of illusion to try to see beautiful things during a hard time." It was inspired by her break-up with Will Lemon, who she met while recording her debut album, Fur and Gold. The album "takes you through this whole journey, all the way to the end of the relationship and the end of making the record. So it's kind of like this strange, synonymous cycle that happened. And then obviously the album's called Two Suns, so there's this kind of like "two planets" situation. Just the whole theme of planets chasing each other, you know, night and day chasing each other eternally, and being in England and New York and being separated by an ocean, and lots of different types of landscapes, different types of personalities, and internal conflict."
The recording of Two Suns began in 2008 and took five months to complete. It was written and recorded around the world, from Big Sur and the Joshua Tree desert in California to the rolling Welsh countryside and the city sprawls of New York and London.
When Khan started to work on the album, she set out to make an album that was "vocally stronger" than Fur and Gold, with "more lush electronic sounds and tribal rhythms". She believed that living in Brooklyn when bands such as TV on the Radio, MGMT and Gang Gang Dance were emerging on the music scene had an influence on the album's musical style.
Khan stated that she began working on the album with the intention of not compromising her artistic vision. She said, "I went to the recording studio and told the record company that they weren’t allowed to come. I got one email about feedback, asking me to drop certain tracks, and I said no." When she played the finished album to the record company Parlophone, she wasn't present, but she did receive some feedback. "They said, ‘Natasha, you’ve made a great album.’ But there were a few mutterings around like, ‘Natasha you’ve made a great album, but what are we going to do with it? Radio aren’t going to play it, y’know?’ They were happy for me on an artistic level, but I made their job a lot harder."
"Daniel" was released on 1 March 2009 as the album's lead single, reaching number 36 on the UK singles chart. Both "Siren Song" and the 909s in DarkTimes mix of "Sleep Alone" were featured in the first season of the American television series The Vampire Diaries, while only the latter was included on the series' soundtrack album. the instrumental version of "Siren Song" was also used in Season 15 of Top Gear, in Episode 3, as well as the tribute to Ayrton Senna. The song "Glass" was used in the trailer for the 2012 video game Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.