The Bride (album)

Background

While working on her side project Sexwitch with Dan Carey and Toy, Khan revealed she was making an album tied to a short film she had directed about a bride facing a disaster on her wedding day, aiming for a spring 2016 release. The recording took half a year in a rented house on Ohayo Mountain during late 2015. In February 2016, she shared early images from a shoot with photographer Neil Krug. On February 19, she put out the promotional track "I Do," whose cryptic cover said "Save the Date, 1st July 2016." The album's first official single, "In God's House," premiered on Annie Mac's BBC Radio 1 show on March 10 and came out digitally the next day.

Concept, release and artwork

The Bride is a concept album following a woman whose fiancé dies in a car crash on the way to their wedding; she decides to go on the honeymoon alone, and the album explores her emotions dealing with the tragedy. Khan said the trauma and grief from the death of the groom, Joe, serves as a metaphor allowing her to explore love in general, which requires a death of sorts. The album was created with past collaborators Simone Felice, Dan Carey, Head, and Ben Christophers.

Singles "In God's House" and "Sunday Love" had music videos directed by Khan and John DeMenil. To promote the album, Bat for Lashes performed in churches to match the wedding theme, asking fans to wear formal attire. The artwork, made with photographer Neil Krug, was shot over a year; the CD and vinyl include a booklet and prints from the collaboration.

Critical reception

The Bride received generally positive reviews from critics. On Metacritic, it scored 78 out of 100 based on 30 reviews. Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph called it a beautiful, beguiling, disturbing and rewarding album of love, loss, grief and recovery. Rachel Aroesti of The Guardian described it as darkly intriguing dirges with a battle between Khan's intimate vocal and subtly unnerving sonic dissonance.

Larry Bartleet of NME viewed it as Khan's most ambitious yet, noting she refuses to yield crossover hits like "Daniel" and opts for slow storytelling that rewards patient listeners. George Garner of Q dubbed it her boldest album and her defining statement as an artist. Nina Keen of DIY wrote that the record resists clichés, giving freshness and sincerity to her ethereal music, calling it a beautiful, complex and often harrowing listening experience.