Audio By Carbonatix
Independent Journalism in Miami Needs You
We need to raise $10,000 by August 9 to support the reporting our community depends on. Reader support keeps us independent and is playing a larger role in funding local journalism and shaping what comes next. If you believe independent local journalism matters, make a contribution today.
Kate Nash’s debut LP, Made of Bricks, was released last summer in the UK, where she became an overnight sensation; both the CD and single “Foundations” charted at number one. The 20-year-old from a London suburb pals around with Lily Allen, to whom she’s frequently compared. Yet unlike Alright, Still (Allen’s debut), Made of Bricks jumps genres as if it has multiple personality disorder. The electroclash throwaway “Play” leads off the album, ahead of whimsical sing-along “Mouthwash” and the epic, almost-Gothic “Mariella.” But no matter. Nash is a phenomenal talent who seems able to imagine riffs as easily as she snaps her fingers. She’s also got a gift for pointed human observations that don’t slow her narratives. “Thursday night, everything’s fine, except you’ve got that look in your eye when I’m telling a story and you find it boring,” begins “Foundations.” Though she talks tough like Allen — “I wish that you were more intelligent so you could see that what you are doing is so shitty to me,” she says on “Dickhead” — her lines ultimately betray more vulnerability and immaturity than her countrywoman’s. But that’s not a bad thing. Instead one looks forward to the development of her art as she gets older.
