BAT'S THE WAY TO DO IT; CD OF THE WEEK.

Byline: GAVIN MARTIN

BAT FOR LASHES Two Suns ****

It's intriguing that, just as the male-run record industry falls apart, proud individual women are making so much of the musical running. One such is Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, who with her second album fulfils all the promise of her Mercury-nominated 2007 debut Fur And Gold.

It's a beautifully rounded, sophisticated and thematically ambitious work, composed in New York and California.

With legendary recluse Scott Walker making a rare guest appearance, Two Suns combines oceanic longing with the thrust of the dance floor, and the spacey disorientation of the desert with the thrill of electronic discovery.

Sleep Alone is a prayerful ode to solitude which aches with unrequited lust, the glistening instrumentation soothed and massaged by Natasha's voluptuous voice.

Brighton-based Nat knows her Bj|rk from her Kate Bush, just as she knows her Hunky Doryera Bowie from her Surf's Up Beach Boys (Moon And Moon). And as for the gently heartbroken Daniel, it has both a title from Elton John and the sort of silky confidence and deep longing people associate with Fleetwood Mac at their airplay-hogging peak. But it goes far beyond these references with galloping beats whipping glacial synths into place, and Natasha singing of "wrapping my arms around your neck" as she maps out her singular vision.

That's the great thing about this record. I don't know, or much care, if Natasha has actually heard Bowie, Elton or Fleetwood Mac, and she reminds me of them only fleetingly. But it's impossible to hear Two Suns and not come away with a distinct impression of a confident artist, just like when you first heard Bush herself.

This is music of a higher quality, the work of an artist communicating meaningful ideas, superbly realised and delivered. Two Suns is also a record of high-flying drama.

Witness the way the intimate verses of Siren Song contrast with its big, operatic choruses.

It may well cause many of the discredited males she and her sisters will replace to wet the bed at night.

They'll also be crying themselves to sleep knowing that they haven't even got a passport to get into the musical lands Natasha strides across with such ease and grace.

Big up the Batty girl!

CAPTION(S):

LASHING OUT: Natasha Khan