Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 06/08/07
Label: Fiction

It's the British spirit that if something appears to be a good, fun and widely celebrated, we are suspicious. So, presented with a genuine, shiny, sparky pop star like Kate Nash, armed with the selling power to almost dislodge Rihanna's bloody "Umbrella"-ella-ella from Number One, rather than applaud her gallop to success, we're tempted to look a gift horse in the mouth. Don't be, because this is one filly that bites.

From that fantastic line in "Foundations" ("You said I must eat so many lemons 'cause I am so bitter / I said I'd rather be with your friends mate, 'cause they are much fitter") to the delicate, witty exploration of everyday female neuroses on "We Get On", Nash weds jazzy sunshine pop with bitchy, funny and heartfelt lyrics. However, she's more indebted to Nellie McKay, Lauryn Hill and (heavily) NYC anti-folk kookmistress Regina Spektor than to her most frequent comparison, Lily Allen.

As the oh-so-hilarious internet swipe "LDN Is A Victim" proved, both she and Lily are an easy target for snipers who would dismiss them as debutante dilettantes, adopting bit-of-rough accents and playing with a pop career. Cack-handed inverted snobbery of the worst kind, of course, based on a decades-redundant stereotype of 'middle class' as people called Jemima and Tarquin, who speak in cut-glass accents and don't swear, get angry or get drunk. There's nothing not to celebrate in sarcastic, playful, unashamedly girlish (real girlish) tracks like "Sh*t Song" or "Dickhead".

If you're tired of the idea that for female "empowerment" in pop means aggressive sexuality, it's refreshing to see young women like Kate and Lily with smart frocks but smarter mouths racing up the charts. Take "Mouthwash", which begins in celebrating ordinariness, as Kate chirps, "I use mouthwash and sometimes I floss / I've got a family and I drink cups of tea" over probably the most straightforward indie-rock on the album and ends up in being a defiant statement Sleater-Kinney wouldn't turn their noses up at: "This is my mind / And although you try to infringe you cannot confine".

It's one of the most exciting debuts by a young female pop artist in ages. If occasionally it veers a wee bit too much towards the cutesy-kooky ("Mariella"'s ode to a wilful toddler) and sometimes towards Brit-school trained commerciality (see "Skeleton" or "Merry Happy"), these things will surely be ironed out in time, and for now, there's a wealth of exuberant pop moments like the glorious, R&B-ish horn-parping "Pumpkin", the witty, pretty "Birds" or the dark bunny-boiling love song "Nicest Thing".

It'll take more than a huff and a puff of hypocritical sniping to blow down Kate Nash's house; made of bricks, cemented with real talent.

    by Emily Mackay