Format Digital download
7" Label Parlophone | Genre Synthpop
folktronica | |
Released 1 March 2009 (2009-03-01) Recorded Natasha Khan's house, Brighton; Bryn Derwen Studios, Wales; Magic Shop Studios, New York City; DK Studio, London Length 3:29 (radio edit)
4:09 (album version) | ||
"Daniel" is a song by English recording artist Bat for Lashes, from her second studio album, Two Suns. It is her best selling single to date, selling over 46,000 copies worldwide. The song was announced as the lead single from Two Suns in January 2009, then released as a digital download single on 1 March 2009, and as a 7" vinyl single on 6 April 2009. The track was written by Natasha Khan and produced by David Kosten, as with all tracks on the album. Ira Wolf Tuton from Yeasayer provided the bass lines for the song and Khan did the rest of the instrumentation herself.
Contents
Khan said in an interview with The Sun newspaper that "Daniel" is based on a fictional character that she fell in love with as a teenager. The single's cover features Khan with an image of the character Daniel LaRusso, from the film The Karate Kid, painted on her back. A character much like LaRusso also features at the end of the music video which goes with the song. The B-side of the 7", 'A Forest' is a cover version of the 1980 single by The Cure of the same name.
Digital Spy said that "Daniel" is "probably the most immediate thing Khan has recorded. Both synthy and mystical-sounding, and filled with poetic lyrics about "marble movie skies" and "the smell of cinders and rain," it could almost pass for a lost Stevie Nicks track from the early eighties. Khan's velvety voice, meanwhile, remains as enchanting as ever, so here's hoping a few more people get to hear it." NME said the song "relives ghostly memories of her first love and sounds like Fleetwood Mac's "Rhiannon" filtered through the weeping circuits of a broken-hearted android." Gigwise said "a poppy work of kosmik disko à la Empire of the Sun as a sexy working of electric violin and vocal overdubs are strapped to the beats and bones of a mythic love song." Pitchfork likewise gave it a highly positive reception, awarding the single 9/10, describing the vocals in the song as "alternately commanding and fragile" and describing the song as "her 'Running Up that Hill'." At the end of the year, Pitchfork also rated "Daniel" the 4th best song of the year. The video for "Daniel" was named the 11th best video of the year by Spin Magazine in their "Top 20 Best Videos of 2009" countdown.
Track listings
- "Daniel" – 4:09
- "Daniel" (Cenzo Townshend radio edit) – 3:29
- "A Forest" – 3:09
- "Daniel" (Duke Dumont Remix) – 3:36
- "Daniel" (Death Metal Disco Scene Remix) – 6:50
- "Daniel" (Death Metal Disco Scene Dub) – 5:46
Music video
Directed by Johan Renck, the music video was released in March 2009. The music video starts with Khan in a room, alone, singing the song; and when the chorus sets in, black-clad "shadow" figures come from out of the dark and start to surround her. Khan appears undaunted as she continues singing. The figures touch her and pull her, and soon she is carried by them. Khan struggles to break free, but they hit her multiple times and she faints. The scene then changes to Khan driving a car, presumably escaping from the figures, looking scared and desperate. She seems unaware of the fact that the figures are on the roof of the car. While she drives, one of the figures enters the car from above to the backseat and caresses her shoulders. Khan gives a pleased expression while being caressed, possibly thinking it was Daniel, the man she is singing about in the song. When she turns around, she discovers to her shock that it is not Daniel, but the figure. She appears frightened and she turns the car left and right swiftly to shake the figure(s) off. The figures slowly disappear. As she continues driving, a boy (Daniel, dressed similarly to the character of Daniel LaRusso from the film The Karate Kid) appears in the middle of the street, and she stops the car and runs up to him and embraces him, and at the last shot she smiles into the camera, glad to find him.
At the MTV VMAs 2009, "Daniel" was nominated for best Breakthrough Video.