ALBUM REVIEW: Kate Nash's "My Best Friend is You"

When I first heard 22-year-old British pop singer Kate Nash back in 2007, she was transitioning into the American mainstream along with a lot of other Brits (Ingrid Michaelson, Adele, etc.) that sounded fairly similar. I loved them all.

For her second album, however, she needed to set herself apart. In the last one, I had a soft spot for her cheeky rifts in "Foundations," "Shit Song," and "Pumpkin Soup." But for My Best Friend is You she is a little more angry and a little more indie rock. Here are my favorite tracks:

"Do Wah Doo," the first single, is a throwback to her tongue-in-cheek sense of humor:


"Paris," expected to be the second single, is a little less bubbly. But my favorite is the somber, intense, and rhythmically-taut "Pick Pocket":


The best track, however, is actually kind of hard to find a good clip of on youtube. It's "Mansion Song," which is a spoken-word poem filled with anger, expletives, and a politically-defiant message. Normally I hate it when my favorite singers change their sound and their message, but Nash is evolving, not mutating.