Music / Fur and Gold

''We walked on and on / but I didn't feel his touch / the desire I once tried to hide / that tingling inside / was gone"

Got woken in the night
By a mystic golden light
My head soaked in river water

— "Horse and I"

Fur and Gold is the debut album by Bat for Lashes, released in 2006. It was released to critical acclaim, and is definitely a case of First Installment Wins.

It's a dark and atmospheric record, and is inspired by genres like Folk Music, Electronic Music, and Psychedelic Rock. It also has a sort of fairy tale, fantasy theme to it, and is the start of her "mystical" sound. The singles from the album are "The Wizard", "Trophy", "Prescilla", and "What's a Girl to Do?", which was the album's biggest hit.

Tracklist

1. "Horse and I" (3:04)
2. "Trophy" (4:00)
3. "Tahiti" (3:38)
4. "What's a Girl to Do?" (2:58)
5. "Sad Eyes" (4:16)
6. "The Wizard" (4:17)
7. "Prescilla" (3:34)
8. "Bat's Mouth" (4:25)
9. "Seal Jubilee" (4:44)
10. "Sarah" (3:56)
11. "I Saw a Light" (6:24)

US and iTunes bonus track:

"I'm on Fire" (3:31)

---

What's a trope to do?

• Album Title Drop: In "Trophy":
  The trophy that I made for us
  In fur and gold
  Got into the wrong pair of hands
  In truth, was sold
• Action Girl: Invoked in "Horse and I"
• Break-Up Song: "What's a Girl to Do?" is about a woman who is contemplating on whether to break up with her boyfriend or not.
• The Chosen One: "Horse and I"
  They called a horse out of the woodland
  "Take her there, through the desert shores"
  They sang to me, "This is yours to wear"
  "You're the chosen one, there's no turning back"
• The Cover Changes the Gender: "I'm On Fire", originally by Bruce Springsteen.
• Cool Horse: One on the album cover, and talked about in "Horse and I".
• Lonely Piano Piece: "I Saw A Light", "I'm On Fire", and "The Bat's Mouth".
• Love Triangle: "Prescilla" is about a woman named Karen who loves a man, but the man loves Prescilla.
• Lyrical Dissonance: "Prescilla", especially.
• One-Woman Song: "Prescilla", "Tahiti", and "Sarah".
• One-Word Title: "Trophy", "Tahiti", "Prescilla", and "Sarah".
• Questioning Title?: "What's A Girl To Do?"
• Self-Backing Vocalist: The singer does this on most of the songs.
• "Setting Off" Song: "Horse and I".
• Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: In "I'm On Fire":
  Sometimes it's like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and blunt
  And cut a six inch valley through the middle of my... soul

---