Bat for Lashes is back with the announcement of a new album, The Dream of Delphi, out May 31st via her new label home Mercury KX. As a preview, the dream pop artist born Natasha Khan has shared the title track and its accompanying video.
The Dream of Delphi was named after and inspired by Khan’s daughter, who was born in the summer of 2020. According to a press release, her sixth studio full-length is a concept album about motherhood featuring “devotional love songs about the spirituality, ancestry, and folklore, but also the mundane, selfless and tender aspects of child rearing that all mothers can attest to.” It’s partially told through a character called the Motherwitch.
Khan added that the title track is “the manifesto of the album. It’s like a spell being cast. It’s the conjuring, the manifestation, the drawing-down of Delphi from the ether. This is me calling on her soul. It’s about going up into the stars and down into the underworld simultaneously, how celestials and deep guttural sounds can come together, how that reflects the journey I went on.”
She continued, “It’s about what happens when you’re stretched physically, mentally, even vaginally! I think it’s just humbled me, too, becoming a mother. It’s made me feel more vulnerable than I’ve ever felt before. But I feel more human, more embodied. I can’t escape life by making beautiful things as much as I did. But there’s sort of a beauty to my mortality now.”
The music video for “The Dream of Delphi,” directed by Freddie Leyden, was shot this past winter in the English countryside in collaboration with creative director and choreographer Alexandra Green. Watch it below, followed by the album artwork and tracklist.
In June, Khan will head out on her first headlining UK tour in five years. See the itinerary below. The general on-sale begins Friday, March 1st via Ticketmaster. Once tickets are on sale, you can also find them at viagogo.
Bat for Lashes’ last studio album, Lost Girls, was released in 2019. Since then, she’s released a live EP called The Boys of Summer and a recording of a lockdown livestream.
The Dream of Delphi Artwork:
The Dream of Delphi Tracklist:
01. The Dream of Delphi
02. Christmas Day
03. Letter to My Daughter
04. At Your Feet
05. The Midwives Have Left
06. Home
07. Breaking Up
08. Delphi Dancing
09. Her First Morning
10. Waking Up
11. The Dream of Delphi (Bonus Extended Strings Version)
Bat for Lashes 2024 Tour Dates:
06/12 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy 2
06/18 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
06/19 – Bristol, UK @ Beacon
06/24 – London, UK @ Barbican
06/25 – Bexhill, UK @ De La Warr Pavilion
06/27 – Manchester, UK @ Aviva Studios
06/29 – Luxembourg, LU @ Siren’s Call Festival
07/06 – Hérouville St. Clair, FR @ Beauregard Festival
07/18 – Ostrava, CZ @ Colours of Ostrava