While it’s hard to tell if Khan’s gentle coo heard throughout is meant to seduce or frighten away, one thing is certain: The Haunted Man is another near masterpiece.
If Khan’s last two albums were tapestries, this one is a prayer book, adorned with pictures of the exalted, stained with tears, and almost too personal for the eyes of strangers to look upon.
Stripped down of any excessive ornamentation, it's the most raw incarnation of Bat For Lashes we've heard yet.
Spacious, boldly orchestrated, and emotionally rich, Khan's latest is another step forward for the multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter, and one of the year's most beguiling albums.
The Haunted Man is yearning, elegant pop music in line with the past year's best.
How can you talk about The Haunted Man without calling it "achingly beautiful"? This is a real problem, and it necessitates a thesaurus.
It’s ... beautiful, daring, and captivating, the sound of pop’s dark heart carving out its own niche and cementing Khan’s status as one of our most inventive, ambitious artists.
The Haunted Man showcases some of her best work, but only in places.
The Haunted Man may not reveal a drastic stylistic shift, but the subtle difference is a nonetheless compelling documentation of the process of metamorphosis.
There’s an undeniable beauty running throughout the album, but there is also such a comfortable departure from the form of the first two records that it might be too easy for Khan.
The Haunted Man is her weightiest work so far.
For large swathes, it's like being plunged into a fairytale soundtracked by skin-prickling electro and populated by downtrodden sods hunting for breadcrumbs of comfort.
There's clarity on The Haunted Man that comes from the sense of physical boundaries being pushed, of personal space being tested to its limits.
The Haunted Man is all about Khan letting her guard down, which you can hear in the yearning pitch of her voice and the bleeding-heart themes of her songs.
It’s safe to say that Natasha Khan has once again managed to craft an album that ticks all the boxes, while also showing a maturity and evolution from her Mercury nominated sophomore album.
While the album's comparatively restrained arrangements occasionally wilt in the face of Khan's fierce melodrama, The Haunted Man is still a worthy, often gorgeous entry in the Bat for Lashes canon.
On The Haunted Man she's exorcised some of those ghosts and gone some way to becoming her own woman.
The Haunted Man is defined by a more refined sensibility, drawing back the playful clatter of her first two albums in favour of sparser arrangements and a slightly elegiac tone.
For the most part this is a composed, nourishing pop album.
Focus and restraint might not sound exciting in and of themselves, but The Haunted Man is more direct than any of Bat for Lashes' previous work, and manages to keep the air of mystique around Khan that has made her one to watch and listen to since her early days.
This effort is laudable, but she sounds best when pushing the envelope. A lively talent like hers shouldn’t be so concealed.
The downside to The Haunted Man being so meticulous is that its songs often feel detached, as though Khan is performing rather than inhabiting the deeply emotional music.
While every track on ‘The Haunted Man’ is brimming with invention, there’s little to keep you coming back for repeat listens.
Despite occasionally drawing blood, The Haunted Man doesn't live up to its stripped and dangerous cover, often retreating to gambol about in the backwaters of Khan's imagination.
The Haunted Man is an assured and sonically seductive record – if only it didn't echo a little too often the sound of other women's work.
While there are moments of exhilarating experimentalism and occasional bits of grasp-the-sky beauty, the overwhelming majority of The Haunted Man is just drab.
Where Two Suns engaged with lush arrangments, warm production, and traditional instrumentation, The Haunted Man is an icy synth masterpiece that feels like the perfect compliment to her previous album. The glorious worldbuilding that Kahn presented in earlier work is turned inward. Instead of thinking about duality in the world, Kahn considers the duality within herself. How do we inspire ourselves, how do we keep going when everything is difficult, and we feel lost? It is through these ... read more
It's astonishing that she was nearly able to top Two Suns, what I would have considered to be an unreachable pinnacle, but here we are. It's a bit more stripped-back instrumentally (still gorgeous), but offers Natasha showing off her most vulnerable and personal lyrics yet. Seem to be a lot of themes of the inner struggle of dealing with your ghosts.
Lilies - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
All Your Gold - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️
Horses of the Sun - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Oh Yeah - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Laura - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️
Winter Fields - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Haunted Man - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Marilyn - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨️
A Wall - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rest Your Head - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Deep Sea Diver - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Total = ... read more
1 Lilies 6,2
2 All Your Gold 10 *_________*
3 Horses of the Sun 7,3
4 Oh Yeah 9,6
5 Laura 9,2
6 Winter Fields 6,7
7 The Haunted Man 6,4
8 Marilyn 8,9
9 A Wall 6,5
10 Rest Your Head 10 *_______________*
11 Deep Sea Diver 6,3
1 | Lilies 4:46 | 99 |
2 | All Your Gold 4:32 | 95 |
3 | Horses of the Sun 4:59 | 91 |
4 | Oh Yeah 4:56 | 100 |
5 | Laura 4:26 | 100 |
6 | Winter Fields 3:42 | 98 |
7 | The Haunted Man 5:15 | 99 |
8 | Marilyn 4:35 | 96 |
9 | A Wall 4:01 | 94 |
10 | Rest Your Head 4:04 | 92 |
11 | Deep Sea Diver 6:19 | 85 |
#4 | / | Slant |
#4 | / | Under the Radar |
#6 | / | SPIN |
#10 | / | DIY |
#17 | / | Pitchfork |
#19 | / | Consequence of Sound |
#21 | / | The Guardian |
#23 | / | Complex |
#23 | / | Treble |
#26 | / | The Fly |