Widow's Peak (song)

Bat For Lashes Writer(s) Natasha Khan Simone Felice Producer(s) Natasha Khan Released July 1, 2016 Recorded 2015 Length 03:47 From The Bride Single(s) "In God's House" "Sunday Love" "Joe's Dream" Promotional single(s) "I Do" "If I Knew" / "In Your Bed" The Bride track listing "Close Encounters" "Land's End"

"Widow's Peak" (originally called as "Bride in the Fog") is a song performed by Bat For Lashes. It serves as the eighth track on Natasha's fourth studio album, The Bride.

Background

On 19 December 2015, Natasha posted a photo of her recording a "spoken word poem" on Instagram announcing this song's title.

The way she composed the songs on The Bride was markedly different to writing her other records. She wrote the song titles first, decided what order they would run on the album and then created the words and music. Most of the titles came to her quickly, but some took a little longer to finish.

“"Joe’s Dream" was called originally called "Don’t Say Goodbye", "Widows Peak" was "Bride in the Fog". "If I Knew" was there early as well, I just didn’t know what it was called straightaway.”

On March 10, 2016, she shared the behind-the-scenes photoshoot for the album with a snippet of the track playing in the background. Months later, on June 28, 2016, Natasha shared a fragment of what would probably be the music video for the track on her Instagram account.

Music and composition

Within The Bride's story,

“It’s a moment where she could lose everything, when grief turns you into something you don’t want to be, where it hardens your heart like a Miss Havisham character. That’s the part where she could go to the dark side, but she doesn’t.”

In an interview, Natasha said the song is about the bride not letting go of the grieving process:

“The song Widow’s Peak, there’s an aspect, there’s part of the album where she gets kind of hunted, almost, by a widow, but the widow is personification of the cynical, hardened heart, someone who can’t let go of the grief and who becomes a misshapen or hardened person, so he does flirt with that.”

Lyrics

Come wonder with me
Through a young girl's dream
Don't wake me up too soon
There's a halo on the moon
You hunger, I'll thirst
Pink stars do burst
God of lightning, Goddess of fern
A map to memorise, a lullaby to learn

Come on, darling, take me there
Where red clouds bloom and fill the air
Where my purple heart beats to your jet black snare
Up on Piney Point if you dare

You're my blood, you're my wine
You're my mountain to climb
Say you're mine
You're mine
You're mine

Bride in the fog
And no way out
Can't see my own hands
Can't hear a sound
Where angels conspire and heroes do drown
I am lost in the mire, upside down

Is that my soul on fire whirling by?
Take a walk, man of God
I just want to die
I tell you, my friend
The widow is on my trail

You'll hear her
You will know her
A chill on the skin
A song in the wind

To wander, to roam
To never know home
To lie under a sky of blood reds and pale blues
To tread ten thousand miles in a dead man's shoes
There's a demon loose, a demon loose
I can't get home
I can't get home
For the road is a snake of mist
In the shadow of a rebel's fist
His jacket on my back
His bones on the shore
But the secret to dreams is to dream up a door
A portrait of him
A picture of her
A keyhole in a Douglas Fir

Credits

Personnel

• Natasha Khan - songwriting, production, vocals, celesta, vibraphone
• Alex Reeves - timpani, drums and percussion
• Dawn Landes - backing vocals, guitar
• David Baron - sound effects
• Simone Felice - songwriting, recording engineer