Kate Nash’s second release, My Best Friend Is You manages to circumvent the usual route taken by hyped artists’ sophomore releases. It’s not about the perils of fame and it’s not experimental for difference sake nor does it sound like Made of Bricks: The Sequel. Kate Nash managed to release a second album that contains the same quirky lyrics about love, friendship and self from her debut but with an overall more mature sound that comes about in a really wonderful way.
My Best Friend Is You swings between 1960s girl-groups, string arrangements, and even some early 90s riot grrrl influences. Opening track, “Paris” starts things up purely upbeat, hand-claps and all, and the first hint of the above mentioned string section. From here we move on to the 60s girl-group sounding “Kiss That Grrrl” about the jealousy and insecurities in a relationship. First single, “Do-Wah-Doo” again brings to mind this 60s girl group sound as can be surmised from the song title instead. It’s like what we wish the new Pipettes actually sounded like but don’t.
The track “I Just Love You More” had previously been released on Kate Nash’s website as a free download and thus was one of the first songs I heard from this album. What’s interesting is that lyric-wise, it’s not the most original song (it consists mostly of the repetitive line “I just love you more”) but musically it’s a strong song. At first listen it’s hard to get around the sound of it, especially as compared to the rest of the album, but then I realized that I find myself foot tapping and head nodding whenever listening to it. The song almost sounds like it came from one of the early 90s Riot Grrrl bands; one of the better ones. And in further unexpected style, “Mansion Song” begins with an expletive laden Lydia Lunch style spoken word rant about female groupies.
My Best Friend Is You is an example of what a true sophmore release should be, proof of a maturing artist. From songs like “Later On” and its almost Spector like production to the more simple, but just as beautiful, “I Hate Seagulls.” (BTW wait for the hidden track coming on around 7:11.) Kate Nash manages to show the range she can take musically but is also able to give us a consistent sounding album. Makes me wish Kate Nash was my best friend.
I have been looking forward to this and I’m listening right now. I like her voice but I like her solo piano stuff a lot more (see youtube). So far so good on this one though.
Well I’m done now and I have to state that I am pretty disappointed. Expectations were high and I guess I did want Made of Bricks 2. There are a few decent songs but none I suspect I will be listening to by next week. There are some truly awful songs. “Cool” people will love the swearing and semi rap style stuff but I found it self indulgent crap.
Hopefully she’s on a path that leads to a great third album. 411 did a good review that summarizes as follows and seems to capture it to a tee (though they liked Mansion Song)
“Confused, incoherent and direction-less, My Best Friend Is You is a mess and a direct reflection of it’s creator’s internal narrative. Kate Nash has come to a cross road in her life, she wants to say something, she feels compelled to say it, and she has the creativity and talent to deliver it, but unfortunately she doesn’t know what “it” is.”
Well I guess we have to agree to disagree because I really liked it (if you couldn’t tell from the review).