page_title: Bat for Lashes
section_title: 2009–11: Two Suns
hierarchical_section_title: Bat for Lashes / Music career / 2009–11: Two Suns
caption_attribution_description: Bat For Lashes at the Primavera Sound 2009.
context_page_description: Natasha Khan, known professionally as Bat for Lashes, is an English singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has released five studio albums, Fur and Gold, Two Suns, The Haunted Man, The Bride, and Lost Girls, receiving Mercury Prize nominations for Fur and Gold, Two Suns and The Bride. Khan is also the vocalist for Sexwitch, a collaboration with the rock band Toy and producer Dan Carey.
context_section_description: Khan's second album, Two Suns, was released in April 2009 and produced by Khan and David Kosten. In preparation for the album, Khan journeyed to the Joshua Tree Desert in California to gain inspiration, before returning to New York and London to write and record the finished material for release.
  A concept album, Two Suns focuses on Khan's desert-born alter ego Pearl, whose personality she adopted while staying in New York to gain a better understanding of the character. She revealed to the BBC's Newsbeat, "I really just did it as an experiment of dressing up myself with quite garish extreme feminine make-up. I wanted to photograph myself in that situation and just see what it made me feel." Khan 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. In an interview with MTV she said, "I experienced that whole thing coming out, in terms of beats and like going out dancing and checking out all this new music it was really inspiring." During the album's production, she also collaborated with Brooklyn band Yeasayer for the bass and beat programming. In June 2009, Bat for Lashes first appeared on the cover of The Fader, in its 60th issue.
  Two Suns debuted at number five on the UK Albums Chart, and has been certified gold by the BPI for sales of 100,000 copies. The first single from the album, "Daniel", became Khan's first hit, peaking at number thirty-six on the UK Singles Chart; it later won the Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song and was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Breakthrough Video of the Year. The following singles were "Pearl's Dream" and a double A-side of "Sleep Alone" and "Moon and Moon", the latter of which was featured in a high-profile advertising campaign for children's charity Barnardo's in late 2009.
  Critical response to the album was generally favourable, generating a score of 77 on the review aggregator Metacritic. In their review for Two Suns, NME awarded it 8 out of 10 describing the album as "epic in scope and ambition and requires a similarly epic patience to unravel its charms." Rolling Stone also rated it favourably, stating "Khan proves she's a powerhouse under her billowy sleeves. She could be the next Kate Bush." However some critics such as Popmatters found problems: reviewing the album, they wrote, "While the weaker songs are definitely not throwaways, they miss the mark in more than one way." Blender magazine also felt the album was average, awarding it 3 out 5 stars, saying "The contrast between Pearl and Natasha isn't always crisply drawn". As with Fur and Gold, Khan was nominated for the Mercury Prize for Two Suns. In 2010, she won Best Alternative Act at the UK Asian Music Awards and received a second BRIT Award nomination for British Female Solo Artist.
  As part of the 2009 summer festival season, Khan played at Glastonbury, Somerset House and the iTunes Festival. In September 2009, a special edition of Two Suns was released in the United Kingdom ahead of Khan's October tour.  The special edition, which included a cover version of Kings of Leon's single "Use Somebody", was released simultaneously in the United States. Later in 2009, the cover artwork for Two Suns was nominated for Best Art Vinyl.
  In early 2010, Khan toured South America supporting Coldplay after a gig at The De La Warr Pavilion including covers of Radiohead's "All I Need" and The Cure's "Lullaby". In 2010, she collaborated with Beck on the track "Let's Get Lost" for the Twilight Saga: Eclipse soundtrack, and contributed the song "Sleep Alone" from Two Suns to the Enough Project and Downtown Records' Raise Hope for Congo compilation. Proceeds from the compilation funded efforts to make the protection and empowerment of Congo's women a priority, as well as inspire individuals around the world to raise their voice for peace in Congo.
  For Record Store Day 2010, Bat for Lashes released an exclusive double A-side 7" single comprising a live performance of "Trophy" single B-side "Howl" reco
caption: Bat for Lashes at the Primavera Sound 2009
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