Bat for Lashes – The Dream of Delphi Review

We cast aside our dreams of Greek towns, but Bat for Lashes is paying attention. The Dream of Delphi is presumably about this and not the software which makes programming and drafting easier. This is not a love letter to Delphi Softwares but an aware and present slice of folktronica ahead of Bat for Lashes’ album of the same name. Soar high and experience the sincerely grand boom and build of The Dream of Delphi. Its harpsichord additions mark the lust and wonder of those far-off wonders. Aching beauty and a strong tie to the natural world bring about a slight glitch pop and industrialised electric influence. It is a perfect blend and Bat for Lashes strides through this recounted dream.  

Ultimately it proves fractured and chilling. Feel the breeze on your fingers and return your mind back to the world around you. Its layered wonders mark The Dream of Delphi as an ultimately acceptable and workhorse-like mood changer. Get your head off the internet for a moment. The dream is not of a Greek town or of computer programming software, anyone with a few cells in the brain to rub together realises this is an ode to a child, a complete reawakening of pure love no matter the consequences of urge. Those limitless bounds of love and how high they soar become a brutal reality; the illuminating flavour of a bond made up during a time of proximity. Where those with no children can only wonder, The Dream of Delphi does an urgent and wonderful job of connecting these experiences to those who are nowhere close to understanding. Bat for Lashes has taken everyone they can on board and shown off true love. 

Take a few days away from the track and head back into it. Give yourself a seventy-two-hour break or so and dive right back in, the breeze on your fingers truly accelerated by the desire for protection, comfort and safety for the future. Remarkable stuff, the new transmissions of life dawning on Bat for Lashes but not in a way which plants motherhood at the core. There is a deeper, lingering thought here, of unlimited and unconditional love. Sparkling little flickers and the warmth of those strings and the constant, ever-rising electric beat which slowly slips into the background – a wonderful instrumental collection and a surefire essential from Bat for Lashes. 

Much of this comes from the urgency of parenthood but the separation of its message from the duties of this role is a neat and well-experienced, lived-in turn. The Dream of Delphi is set to follow a similar path to Something in the Room She Moves by Julia Holter – an equal of constant and reassuring quality detailing the highs and lows of looking after a loved one during a pandemic. With a static final third, the boom of instrumental flow and an almost industrial sound, slightly adjacent with its echoes and grinds, it marks a neat final moment. Bat for Lashes defends the love from those jagged troubles further down the line and makes for complete and effective working.