My Best Friend Is You

Kate Nash: Yes, we all love her cute little accent. And we also adored her debut album, not because it was deep, or even musically thrilling, hell half of the songs were just C and F chords. Why did we love it? It was cutesy. It made us want to dance. It made us feel like we were 11 years old again: not a little girl anymore, but not yet a woman: a tween in the truest sense of the word. It gave us our youth back, and for that, I commend Nash and her cutesy music and accent.

Nash's latest endeavor is entitled My Best Friend. It's all the cutesy music you loved from her first album...again. The album opens with "Paris", a blaring intro with a cutesy piano riff jumping in. It's fun enough to dance around to, I suppose (although MIKA's "We Are Golden" is a much better dance-around choice). The songs are about as deep as the kiddy pool at the park. With lyrics such as, "kiss that girl, I will shrink her, and I will die and I will think up a thousand ways that I can hurt you and you will never touch my hand," ("Kiss That Grrrl") you'll almost believe her threat by the 25th time she's repeated the chorus.

By the time you hit track three, you might feel a little ripped off. Don't worry, Kate's got some ukulele and what sounds like a xylephone. This sounds great, until the first line of the song, "barbeque food is good." Really? The song ends with some ranty monologue that sounds like a pre-teen girl's rant, reminiscint of Andrew McMahon's in "I'm Ready" (Jack's Mannequin, Everything in Transit). The next track, called "I Just Love You More" is...just that. It's the most original thing (compared to the rest of Nash's material) on the album. Lots of screaming and some attempt at hard guitar. I detect hints of punky-girl-garageband-grunge. The album follows with Do-Wah-Doo (I'd like to be on that plane...actually maybe not, I think I would kill myself from this music), a catchy little jam that you'll want to listen to twice and then again in another two months.

Skip the next few tracks (you're not missing much), to track 8: "Mansion Song". It's a vulgar, monolgue that I think is supposed to move or offend you. It's reminiscent of Pistachio Nut, which is actually a decent poem (at least I like it). "Mansion Song" is a nice break from the unbearable pop, but it sounds so forced (you know that person who has to stress "fuck" everytime they say it? yeah, that's Nash). Skiping "Early Christmas Present" and "Later On" we get to "Pickpocket", which is what Nash is best at really, just playing a simple piano riff and singing. Honestly, this is where she's best. Give her a piano and take away the pop licks and you've just got a girl and her words.

The album closes on "I Hate Seagulls" (which is the first line of the song actually). It reminds me of "Birds" (Kate Nash, Made of Bricks) from her previous album. Following the end of the track is a welcomed few minute silence followed by the "hidden bonus track", which is quite short. Not as good as "Little Red" (Kate Nash, Made of Bricks) the hidden bonus track from her debut.

Like I said, Nash makes us feel like we're not a child anymore, but not quite a woman either: a tween, if I may say so. Her debut was released three years ago though, so I'm wondering, when are we going to grow up? I can only listen to so many pop songs about boys with the same chord progression for so long.

Anyways, I give My Best Friend Is You a 5.6/10. Unless you really want to hear it, I'd skip it and pick up The Apples in stereo's Travelers in Space and Time.