Glass (song)

"**Glass**" is a song performed by Bat For Lashes. It serves as the opening track on Natasha's second album, *Two Suns*. A stripped back version was released on the "Sleep Alone / Moon and Moon" single.

The song was debuted live in June 2008.

## Music and composition

The song opens with a quote from the Song of Solomon, which is the fifth book of Wisdom in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The same quote was included on the album's booklet.

Natasha explained the song in a radio interview:

> “*Glass* actually started off with an excerpt from the Song of Solomon, which is a kind of love poem from the Bible and it talks about my mission for the album, I suppose. It’s like an actual narrative and you can hear the New York subway, there’s this JMZ train from Brooklyn to New York that I recorded while standing under the bridge in the introduction. […] Basically, this song is kind of the fable, the kind of fairy tale version of what’s to come. It kinda describes the fact that I go across an ocean and I discover a city made of glass and the watchmen, and the city pointed to my beloved which is a knight made of completely of glass and crystal. His heart is a sun which is too bright for me to see, and he blinds me; so it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the record.”
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Natasha's quote on the song:

> “It's kind of a fairy tale story of traveling across the ocean to this city of glass and how these two lovers have burned each other out by being too bright, too free and too creative to be able to orbit together.”
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From an interview with *Virgin France*:

> “With “Glass”, the whole story is that New York is like the Emerald City, like a city made of crystal and it’s quite a biblical city but it’s magical because everything is glass. And the boy that I love is made completely of glass and he has a sun for a heart that blinds me 'cause it’s so bright.”
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From an interview with *Under the Radar*:

> "'Glass' is the manifesto of the record. I'm going to go across the sea, and it's a fable of what happened when I went and how it ended in disaster. And it takes you through the record, which explores all of those elements."
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From an interview with *Fader* in March 2009:

> She’s describing the story of “Glass,” the ambitious opener to *Two Suns*, her second album as Bat For Lashes. In the song, amidst hand drums, crashing cymbals, field recordings from a Brooklyn subway stop on the JMZ line and the sound your finger makes when you rub the rim of a half-filled glass, Khan’s vocals charge like an unbridled unicorn. She invites the listener to float into the middle distance and picture a castle made of crystal where watchmen in the towers point to a glass knight whose heart burns bright as the sun.
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> “Every time I get close, his heart vibrates, gets stronger and we get blinded by it,” Khan says. “So I try and make him a cloak made of rainbow colors to refract the light so we can be close, but every time we do, the suns in our chests set fire to everything. In the end, the two suns burning so hotly creates a third thing, a perfect white diamond that flings into space and we become two planets constantly orbiting, basking in each others light, always separated, but there is that diamond that remains.”
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## Critical reception

Pitchfork opined:

> “I could probably fill this entire space just writing about "Glass", the album's aggressively propulsive opener, and about how its strange mix of elements (chamber pop, prog metal, new age-- what?) magically coalesced into some entirely new genre that I wish existed and yet still can't quite wrap my brain around.”
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AllMusic opined:

> “Some songs are just plain overdone: "Traveling Woman" and "Peace of Mind," with its tribal rhythms and gospel choir, aim for majesty but end up dragging. Others use the album's posh polish to make an impact, like "Glass" -- on which Khan hits some amazing high notes -- and "Daniel," which nods to the poppier side of her music.”
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## Official versions

* Album version — 04:32
* Sleep Alone / Moon and Moon (single) — 03:50

## Lyrics

I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets,

and in broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth

Went over the sea

What did I find?

A thousand crystal towers

A hundred emerald cities

And the hand of the watchman

In the night sky

Points to my beloved

A knight in crystal armour…

And I tried to hold him

I tried for the cream

I’ll make a suit of colours

To stop the blinding mirrors

Sew a cape of rainbow

Stifle up the beam

With the perfect armour

With the perfect dream…

To be made of glass!

When two suns are shining

The battle becomes blinding

To be made of glass!

But we’re light and light and light

And light and light!

And from two suns spinning

At two different speeds

Was born a hot white diamond

Burning through the rainbow

Flames fell into orbit

To hold eternally

Two heavenly spirits

That just wouldn’t see

To be made of glass!

When two suns are shining

The battle becomes blinding

To be made of glass!

But we’re light and light and light

And light and light!

## References

1. ↑ https://www.setlist.fm/stats/bat-for-lashes-3bd6e858.html?year=2008
2. ↑ RadioX, 2009
3. ↑ Murphy, Tom (19 August 2009). "Q&A with Natasha Kahn of Bat For Lashes". *Westworld*.
4. ↑ https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8uckt
5. ↑ Under the Radar interview in 2009 (Issue #26 Spring 2009)
6. ↑ "FEATURE: Bat For Lashes". 5 March 2009. *Fader*.
7. ↑ https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/12910-two-suns/
8. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/two-suns-mw0000813895