Album review: Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You
May 7th, 2010
Kate Nash My Best Friend Is You [Fiction/Universal]
Kate Nash wants you to forget about “Foundations,” the 2007 single that made the songstress a big star in the UK and a relatively middle-sized one here in North America. It was career-defining, not to mention a gorgeous little ditty that exposed her as one of Britain’s best new singer-songwriters. But she wasn’t happy about that.
Since the release of “Foundations” and her debut album, Made of Bricks, Kate started dating Ryan Jarman of The Cribs, a relationship that has undoubtedly helped shape her second album, My Best Friend Is You (the title kind of says it all, doesn’t it?). While Kate comes across as a free-speech-waving artist, it’s hard not to see how she’s truly under the influence.
But it’s not just Jarman’s D.I.Y., indie ethic that has inspired Kate. Producer Bernard Butler, a man who has left his mark on everything from his own solo work to his former band Suede to albums by Black Kids, Sophie Ellis-Bextor and most notably, Duffy. Together, Jarman and Butler have turned Nash’s world upside and given us the stuff dreams are made of when it comes to the tired old singer-songwriter custom.
Butler wins the tug o’ war, purely based on how well it sounds on Kate. As we’ve come to expect, he brings more of his signature grandiose orchestration we heard on Duffy’s Rockferry and showers Kate’s songs with lush string arrangements. As a result, straight-up pop songs like “Paris” and first single “Do-Wah-Doo” (this album’s “Foundations”) set her up to sound like she’s right out of a session with Phil Spector. But this type of ‘60s girl group oeuvre is exactly the kind of sound a popsmith like Nash should be striving for.
She’s not content, however, with stopping there. By dating a Crib, Kate’s building her repertoire to include words like “indie,” “lo-fi” and “punk.” Perhaps more than anything she’s striving to become a Riot Grrl, which she references in the Jarman-baiting “Kiss That Grrl.” In that song she takes aim at a girl challenging her man for his love, writing: “I bet she doesn’t like to eat/I bet her feet don’t even stink!/I know your eyes are just for me, but…” Even more Grrl-ish is “Mansion Song,” where she channels her inner riotous emotions for a seething tirade over top of a distant, crackling opera sample that morphs into mid-fi guitar scuzz.
This indie makeover provides Kate with some real promise for the future, should she choose guitars over strings. “I Just Love You More” purges some screeching riffage with repetitive caterwauling vocals that recalls Yeah Yeah Yeahs, should they bring strings into their ruckus. Also worth a mention are “Take Me To A Higher Plane,” a rollicking guitar jam and “I’ve Got A Secret,” which is best described as a strung out fuzzball.
But Kate gets carried away at times. “Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt?” is a spitting rant that builds with an ascending tempo into jaw-dropping bittercisms like “I fancy the hip rock ‘n’ roll scenester/I wanna be f**ked and then rolled over/Cause I’m an independent woman of the 21st century/No time for knits, I want sex and debauchery.” Umm, okay… And then she ends with “I Hate Seagulls,” a duly hidden track that allows her to spew everything on her shit list.
My Best Friend Is You demonstrates there has been significant growth in Kate Nash’s songwriting since Made of Bricks. The two sides – Butler’s gorgeous, string-heavy arrangements and Nash’s flirtations with indie rock - co-exist nicely, showing she can handle either direction should she choose one over the other. I just hope she’s gotten the venting about the price of fame out of her system, because Kate Nash serves it best when she’s singing, not bitching.
Rating: B
-Cam Lindsay
Tags: Bernard Butler, Kate Nash, Ryan Jarman, The Cribs
Posted on Friday, May 7th, 2010 at 11:47 am by Cam and is filed under Reviews, The New Music.
I’m so tired of this, I wish they would just leave