Nashty Stuff

I’ve listened to the new Kate Nash album quite a bit since we’ve been sent it, and I must say, we don’t really see eye to eye.

I wasn’t particularly ga-ga about her debut ‘Made Of Bricks’ – but I sort of got it. I thought her lyrics were annoying at first but then I found myself walking around Topshop with ‘Mouthwash’ blasting out of the speakers in the background, feeling kind of moved by her vulnerability, and her positive attitude towards her being her and nobody being able to take that away from her. Sista. I proceeded to walk around the shop embracing my freckles and womanly curves and bought in excess of around £80 worth of underwear – just for me. You know?

Her new album however, feels a little lost, a little bit like it’s trying to be bigger and bolder than it really is. And the confusing thing is the rather large paradox with regards to her views on self-belief and feminism. It seems she’s really angry about girls who are very fit with nice thighs, and men who judge simply on aesthetics, but also desperately insecure about her own appearance and self-worth. I suppose it’s a pretty raw album lyrically (“I don’t know how more people haven’t got mental health issues/Thinking is one of the most stressful things I’ve ever come across” for example) which is, errr, great, but there’s this obsessive theme that runs throughout, particularly displayed in the girlish yelps of ‘I Just Love You More’ that seems unhealthy. Not to mention her constant verbal spouting about her insecurity about her relationship. That’s hardly installing a great deal of GIRL POWER into the teens of today is it? Our lives shouldn’t rotate around whoever we’re currently dating. Weak/strong/weak/strong, Kate make your mind up!

The album also seems to get pretty lost with what direction it’s going in genre-wise, first she’s 60s girl group doo-wopping, next she’s having a bit of a barn dance Los Campesinos! style, and then – QUICK! – be eclectic! She’s doing a really cringe-worthy punk song and indulging in some spoken word in the style of a 6th form student. Eeeek. It’s all trying to do too much and achieving very little. In my opinion anyway.

It’ll do well – I’m sure it will, and I don’t want to be some massive naysayer – but it just feels like she’s trying a little too hard with it all. There are still really nice moments of pop, she’s still certainly one of the UK’s leading voices, and I’m all for progression, but it feels like the incessant genre bending is for show, to prove a point, rather than to please her fans.

Crass, try-hard and promoting a somewhat confused outlook on modern feminism, Nash’s second effort is certainly not the piece of work that will nudge me into KK (Kamp Kate).