There's a ton of them out there right now: British blue-eyed soulstresses commanding airplay, record sales, magazine covers, Grammy awards, tabloid fodder. There's Amy Winehouse, of course, and Lilly Allen. There's Adele and Duffy, and no doubt scores of others waiting in the wings. They all mine similar veins of 60s retro-themed turf, bluesy-jazzy fare with Motown and girl group overtones and tres moderne lyrics that push the envelope for what used to be called "girl singers." They're pretty and stylish and have perfect voices leaning to the pop side of soul, but they differ from the Lulus, Sandies and Lesleys and Dustys, Nancys and Petulas, in that their songs are peppered with profanity and sexuality is not alluded to, it's explicitly delineated. This is 2009, after all, 10 years after Alanis went down on an ex at the movies, and the girl-next-door is almost an atavism.
Enter Kate Nash, possessor of a terrific and number-one-in-Britain album, "Made of Bricks," that for some strange reason hasn't achieved the same level of success and notoriety here in the United States as her talented peers. I saw her perform on Kimmel and Letterman and the other late night talk shows when she was over here and her material impressed me as well as her fierce keyboard work. I liked her voice and her presence was attractive. I thought, yep, here's another one of those Brit girls inheriting the Lisa Stansfield mantle and taking it to the next level, it's good to hear new voices walking around in old shoes.
Then I downloaded the album, played it and bam! I fell head over heels in love. Great voice, well thought out but not overwrought musical settings, and the songs! Shit. Nash has a unique point of view, a finely developed sense of humor and is happy to share her self-effacing and wry self with her audience. Her beats, almost uniformly piano based, pulse and pump perfectly with her smartass songs like my favorite, "Dickhead" ("Why you being a dickhead for? Why you being a dickhead? Why you being a dickhead for? You keep fuckin up situations") that make me chuckle and instantly recognize my own sometime interior monologues. No, wait! "We Get On" is my favorite, the "It's My Party" update where Johnny checks out Kate's ass and she gets a little too tossed. No, no, it's "Mariella," about the friend who commits suicide to a steady Chiffons bounce. It's so hard to choose a definitive favorite, because every song, from the irresistible "Merry Happy" and its steadily increasing breakneck pace to the UK #2 smash, "Foundations," perfectly encapsulating a relationship that's flushing down the toilet, is wonderful to listen to, laugh with and sing along to.
Kate Nash fell down a flight of stairs, broke her foot and was housebound and unable to move for a time, so her mother bought her an electric guitar which she taught herself to play and began writing songs. She booked a gig at a local pub, recorded a couple of demos, put up a my space page, hired a manager and then a producer, a savvy blend of young business woman and music nerd, and it's worked for her. She may have been criminally overlooked here in the US so far, but I doubt that will last. She is working on a new record, reportedly more of a punk sound, that should be out by the end of the year. If it's anything like "Made or Bricks," we are in for a real treat.
1 comment:
love love love it.
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