Kate Nash: Up, up and away
(Credit: Fiction Records)
Thursday night, everything's fine,
Except you've got that look in your eye when I'm telling a story
And you find it boring, you’re thinking of something to say.
You'll go along with it, then drop it
And humiliate me in front of our friends.
Then I'll use that voice that you find annoyin'
And say something like “yeah intelligent input darlin', why don't you just have another beer then?"
Then you'll call me a b*tch and everyone we're with will be embarrassed, and I won't give a sh*t.
Nash's debut CD is entitled "Made of Bricks." Like her countrywomen and 2007 breakout artists Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen (who gave an unsigned Nash a huge boost with a plum position in the Top 8 of her Myspace page), Nash writes unflinchingly honest songs about life as a young woman in the modern world. For 20-year-old Nash, that life revolves around relationships, hence the cruel boyfriend of “Foundations,” who could also be the same hapless bastard roasted in the folksy “D*ckhead.” Which sends her longing for the unrequited loves of “Nicest Thing” and “We Get On.” Get a few drinks in her, and she’s letting the bad boyfriend have it again (“The Sh*t Song”), lusting for a no-strings, one-night stand to a funky beat (“Pumpkin Soup”) or navel-gazing on a Friday night (“Mouthwash”). Sonically, her sound is rooted in folk but augmented by enough contemporary touches and occasional disco thumps to keep it current.
Winding up the album with “Merry Happy,” Nash laments another failed relationship—but instead of getting mad or drunk, she uses it as a celebration of durability and self-reliance:
Yeah, you make me merry make me very very happy
But you obviously, you didn’t want to stick around.
So I learnt from you…
I can be alone
Yeah
I can watch a sunset on my own.
I can be alone...
See Kate Nash be all cute and quirky at the Fonda on Wednesday night
Scott T. Sterling is Music editor for Metromix Los Angeles.
