The Hunger (song)

"Feel For You"
"****The Hunger****"
"Jasmine"

"**The Hunger**"is a song performed by Bat For Lashes. It serves as the second track and second single on Natasha's fourth album, *Lost Girls* and the final track on the Natasha's second EP, The Boys Of Summer. It is the second single from the album released on August 5, 2019.

## Background

From July 30 to August 7, Natasha shared a series of photographs and videos through her social networks of the song and its respective music video.

On August 5, she released the release date for the second single from the album.

On September 5, 2019, she shared an artwork through her Instagram account.

## Music and composition

Natasha Khan, during her September 5, 2019 interview with *Fader*:

> “I started this song with this organ sound on a really old ‘80s synth. Then [co-writer/ producer] Charles Scott IV brought in his bass, and every time we were adding more and more stuff it was getting closer to this particular feeling that I wanted. There’s nothing like this feeling of translating something that’s in your DNA, part of who you are energetically, coming out in music. Like it matches a thumbprint inside of you.”
>
>

She discussed the production of the song in another interview:

> “I’m really into doom metal and those kind of gothy basslines, but Charles came in on ‘The Hunger’ with all that hi-tempo bass and I realised with all the sad chords I like it really took it up to a new level that I hadn’t explored before. It wasn’t even necessarily about creating ‘80s music, but more about the attitude and the fun of collaborating.
>
>

> “I’ve always loved those fuzzy synths and gothy aspects, but they’ve been across all the Bat For Lashes albums, and this one was more about the beats and the basslines. It’s just another facet of me.”
>
>

She told *Loverboy*:

> ‘The Hunger’ is all about this conflict between wanting to be with this person Nikki loves on the topside while the Lost Girls are singing about flying up into the sun and jumping off bridges. They are all around her so it’s kind of like this haunting song.
>
>

## Critical reception

SPIN opined:

> “There seems to be a light vampiric theme running through this album, with Khan starring as a vampire in the video for the previous single “Kids in the Dark,” and the album name itself being an inversion of the name of the 1987 horror-comedy vampire film *The Lost Boys*. In turn, “The Hunger” mentions “blood” and a need to “feed,” and shares a name with another iconic ’80s vampire film.”
>
>

The Stereogum opined:

> “It’s exactly the type of rich, dark, textured beauty that we have come to expect from Bat For Lashes, with Khan’s voice soaring above chiming keyboards and rippling guitar sounds and reverbed-out drum booms. And the lyrics all seem to play out the vampire theme.”
>
>

## Music video

The music video, directed by Natasha Khan herself, sees the main character Nikki Pink (played by Khan) with the girl-gang ‘Lost Girls’ dancing, running and sort of conducting a seance in the desert.

> “My vision was to only use the iPhone and I shot half of the footage I wasn’t in...we were just running around the desert with our iphones capturing anything we could and moving with the dancers.”
>
>

## Lyrics

[Verse 1]

Take a trip

Trip up to the sun

While our bodies are one

And we play in our minds

'Cause it's our blood

And it fills up the sky

Off the bridges we fly

Can we keep us alive?

[Chorus]

I want to fly

You know how I like it

I want to feel

Like I'm still alive

I want to bleed

And feed us forever

But I want to feed

The hunger inside

The hunger inside

The hunger inside

[Verse 2]

Take a trip

Trip down through the fire

Where we lose our desire

To keep up the dance

'Cause it's our love

('Cause you know it's our love)

That is hurt by the flame

(When it becomes a flame)

Can't take this road again

(Can we get back to love?)

If we want to survive

[Chorus]

I want to fly

You know how I like it

I want to feel

Like I'm still alive

I want to bleed

And feed us forever

But I want to feed

The hunger inside

The hunger inside

The hunger inside

[Bridge]

If I could be you

(The hunger inside)

And you could be me

(The hunger inside)

We’d see the hunger inside

(The hunger inside)

And not the enemy

If I could be you

(The hunger inside)

And you could be me

(The hunger inside)

We’d see the hunger inside

(The hunger inside)

And not the enemy

[Outro]

'Cause we can make it love again

And it's time to start things over

And we can come back from the dead

And feed this endless hunger

'Cause we can make it love again

And it's time to start things over

And we can come back from the dead

And feed this endless hunger

## Official versions

* Album version — 05:00
* The Boys Of Summer (EP) — 05:07

## References

1. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0jIVRon-y6/
2. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0k8dosHzdC/
3. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0oVkjEHKC5/
4. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0q1vU6nBh1/
5. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0tmv5PHwen/
6. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0wOjcInANf/
7. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B0yLrD\_ntys/
8. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B01F2MWnh3m/
9. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B028Iv8HFK1/
10. ↑ https://www.instagram.com/p/B2Bl9u6nVGv/
11. ↑ https://www.thefader.com/2019/08/06/bat-for-lashes-new-song-the-hunger
12. ↑ Neale, Matthew (18 August 2019). "Nine Songs: Bat For Lashes". *The Line of Best Fit*.
13. ↑ "Bat For Lashes: “Drag is a way of coping with life”". 2019. *Loverboy Magazine*.
14. ↑ https://www.spin.com/2019/08/bat-for-lashes-the-hunger-single-listen-lost-girls-album/
15. ↑ https://www.stereogum.com/2053634/bat-for-lashes-the-hunger/music/
16. ↑ "Lost And Found: The Dark Side Of Bat For Lashes". 29 October 2019. *Clash*.