Pitchfork Forkcast: New Music: Bat for Lashes: "I'm On Fire" (Bruce Springsteen cover; live on "Fair Game") [MP3/Stream]

New Music: Bat for Lashes: "I'm On Fire" (Bruce Springsteen cover; live on "Fair Game") [MP3/Stream]

A few different versions of Bat for Lashes' cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" have been floating around this year, and those I've come across stick closely to the arrangement heard when the band performed yesterday on Public Radio International's "Fair Game" program. Natasha Khan executes a Cat Power-style dissection of the song, slowing it to a crawl and imparting a gothic, Current 93 vibe with spare piano and an ancient-sounding assortment of stringed instruments. The approach yields an oddly asexual version of the track, perhaps reflecting the formality and more shaded desire of another era. Does she sound like a woman whose sheets are soaking wet? Not really, but there's something to be said for a cover that transports the original song to another world.

MP3:> Bat for Lashes: "I'm On Fire"
[recorded live on "Fair Game"]