Bat for Lashes @ Manchester Cathedral, 13 May

Natasha Khan doesn’t do concept albums by halves. Brighton’s most mystical singer-songwriter has always enjoyed conjuring tales, and after a few quiet years she has emerged with her forthcoming fourth Bat For Lashes album, The Bride. Fittingly for an album about matrimony gone wrong, Khan embraces the silly and serious spirit of weddings at this preview show in a sombre Manchester Cathedral.

“Are you ready for a dark wedding?” she asks, opening with The Bride’s music box opener, I Do. Running through most of The Bride’s track listing, Khan guides the crowd through each song’s story in the cathedral’s candlelight. From the funereal single of In God’s House to the electronic patter of Sunday Love, the album’s folk lilt ends on a note of hope with I Will Love Again. Khan is remarkably chipper tonight, confessing her nerves as she falters during spare piano ballad If I Knew, and it seems that The Bride’s songs will be more direct than we’ve grown used to.

Khan eventually rewards our patience by giving us the hits as Laura’s lingering piano line receives a rapturous reception. Looking to fulfil her fantasy of being ‘a really bad wedding band’, Khan even covers The Carpenters’ It’s Only Just Begun and chucks a bouquet over her head for the crowd to catch. From the strength of old favourites Horse and I, the wild west stomp of Sleep Alone, and Daniel – which closes the night – it’s clear that The Bride’s songs will need time to develop the same haunting weight. Still, it’s always heartening to see an artist this wedded to their ideas.