With the changing of years comes a new brassy, underage, British songstress gracing MTV. Surprisingly, this time around the Date Show Network is actually pushing someone worth listening to. After cracking the top 40 in several European countries, Kate Nash’s debut album, Made of Bricks, has finally made its way to the states. The album is a collection of delightfully told fables about things like a friendship with a skeleton and a girl who chose to glue her mouth shut.
On Made of Bricks Nash proves that she’s more than adept in a variety of sounds. Certain tracks are suited for rainy day reminiscing, while others sound like a call to the dance floor. “Foundations” and “Merry Happy” have her rhyming and flowing in the vein of Lily Allen. “Birds” and “Nicest Thing” mirror the beautifully calm sadness of Lisa Loeb, and with the help of her fetching faux Cockney accent she manages to sound even more endearing than the E! Television reality star. Her charm even goes so far as to excuse grammatically painful phrases like, “Why you being a dickhead for?” The album’s most impressive track, “We Get On” combines all of Nash’s sounds and abilities. Beginning as a lush folk pop number, “We Get On” eventually breaks down into an adorably schizophrenic rant and back again without missing a beat. The only flaw found on Made of Bricks, is “Pumpkin Soup,” which has a chorus that’s slightly reminiscent of something Beyonce would sing in a Revlon commercial.
What keeps Kate Nash’s storytelling so intriguing is that it’s unapologetically self-centered. Made of Bricks contains no cheap epics about love and loss, but each song sounds like an uninhibited and wine-inspired diatribe that would take place at a girl’s sleepover party. Yes, it’s quite bratty and immature, but the passion and candidness with which she sings, coupled with her musical competency, makes for the most earnest and catchy songs written about young love in recent years.
Kate Nash is innocently sassy and cleverly juvenile. She’s the most appealing flippant pop princess to come around since Liz Phair and the best thing to happen to music since the Bird and the Bee. Okay, so maybe your first contact with Kate Nash was on an MTV commercial, but Ian Curtis graced the cover of NME before his band’s first full-length was even released. And do you really want to be the one to question the credibility of Joy Division? – Izzy Cihak