A few months back, a Brit-based Tech DJ on my livejournal (kids, it’s what there was before there was SexySpace, or PornBook, or whatever you kids these days use to “communicate”) posted a simple lyric from a singer/songwriter who was, apparently, slowly making her way up the British radio charts. He was submitting it, essentially, as the simultaneous best/worst pop music lyric of the year, attributed to one miss Kate Nash:
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.”
Holy snarkastic, batman…I fell in instant love, having never heard a bit of this girl, this Kate Nash or her song “Foundations”, but she suddenly sounded like the type of too-appealing female that one could spend all night buying drinks for only to find her gone after the bar’s lights came on.
It took a few listens to her debut full-length, Made Of Bricks, before I was able to hear anything other than the most painfully trite yet equally-as-painfully obvious comparison: Lilly Winehouse. She’s got a smoked and huskier voice than Allen (not by much, though), but her songs are less surface and more the wry lipsmacked confession of Alright, Still than Winehouse’s Back To Black hotel room nights.
What Kate Nash has, though, that the others lack, is a sort of shoe-shuffling, shy-girl-at-the-party-who-suddenly-speaks-up closeness and warmth. No one would really want to be the friend of the girl who sings “Smile”, and everyone’s secretly very, very uncomfortable at “Rehab”’s “hey, I’m fine…right? Right guys, I’m fine?” approach to addiction. Nash’s album may fall flat just about everywhere as a result of flabby over-production, particularly on newer singles like “Mouthwash”, which ring far too glossed radio than smart-girl snark attack (entirely thanks to Paul Epworth, who either needs to go the fuck home or finally produce that Panic! At The Disco album he’s obviously chomping at the bit to get tapped for), but “Foundations”, as a single, makes Nash the patron saint of too-much-in-love wallflowers everywhere.
If the single, a bouncing, warm piece of the best drum-and-pop confection, isn’t enough to cause you to bite your lip with a half-smirk and heart-warming, fingers-crossed leap of faith (and it wasn’t for me, either), the video may very well do it:
It’s that “excuse me, mister” moment early on, when Kate does her smarmy thing and undercuts her sloppy drunk beau’s comments, that’s the golden hook of this whole video. It’s all a love affair with the quiet girl from that moment on.
And, shhh, listen:
Kate Nash: Foundations (Metronomy Remix)
I will kill any and all who think that “oh, god, this needs to be sped up”. Metronomy’s take of this song, making it a low electro pulsed charge, is a perfect mid-morning reminder of how to not behave post-party.
It’s very, very possible that the rest of Made Of Bricks will yield itself with further pressing, further exploration, but too much is lost to Epworth’s blatant inability to be subtle. There are, however, mounds of early demos to be explored on Kate Nash’s myspace page, all of which are PEF (pre-epworth fuckery).
paul epworth made kate nash cool and listenable rather than a third rate lily allen wannabe. notice all the good songs are co-writes (foundations included) with paul.
you should go the fuck home, and get some taste in music.
twat
agreed, everyone in the industry knows kate nash wasn’t touched by a shitty stick until she started writing more songs with paul. she was lily allens bitch. and it sounds like you are too. her album is great, the production is great, she is a breath of fresh air.