Kate Nash - My Best Friend is You
Mike Diver was seen updating his facebook status saying he quite likes it. Andrzej seems to like it too ( http://drownedinsound.com/releases/15312/reviews/4139738 )
Heard it? What do you think? Pleasantly surprised?
Is it me or does she sound like George Pringle on one of the tracks?
On Spotify here: http://open.spotify.com/album/3jihHgHiUNXEjboel1TgaX
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I liked bits of her first album.
It sounded to me like a bunch of half-baked demos hurriedly re-recorded by a record company desperate to cash in on Foundations while they still could. In interviews she always comes across as fairly intelligent and worldly - always thought she'd end up going a bit weirder.
My word.
Mansion Song really is a bit unexpected.
This isn't half bad. This isn't half bad at all.
FIT
TAH
Listening to it now on Spotify
I'll provide my verdict later.
But so far I want to punch her and her fucking mockney voice.
This Plan B / Duffy / Winehouse production cliche is starting to do my head in
but i like the first track. What's 'Mansion Song' all about then i wonder.
Bits of it really do, I thought that as well.
Also: despite really quite liking the initial single, I was not impressed by the album.
That's my two penn'orth.
Mansion Song.
Is possibly the worst thing I've ever listened to. I like the rest of the album though.
For some reason I've only just got around to listening to the single
I enjoyed her first album, but even so...
fucking hell...
it's gooood. Will definitely pick up the album when I get paid
Heard it once
for the first time tonight and my first impressions are: Her voice is her selling point and for me the accent grates, she doesn't have what Lilly or Florence or Ellie or Marina has.
But my main point is - the songs are indie classic sounds with her on top! There's a Sonic Youth rip off (I just love you more), Thowing Muses (I've got a secret) a Pixies tune, Mouldy Peaches (You Were so Far Away).
She's swapped piano ditties with her talking shit over to random indie sounds with her talking shit over!
I like it
but then, I've never been ashamed of liking Kate Nash.
Bizarrely interesting...
A curious mix of Pipettes and Huggy Bear ('Mansion Song' reminds me of the spoken B-side to 'Her Jazz') but yes, a genuinely interesting listen.
Hell, even the scrapbook artwork yells "this should be on Slampt Records".
Reluctantly...
I felt almost guilty for liking her latest song just because of the abuse I've given her in the past. I'll give the album a try I guess. I do kinda hate her whole riot grrl obsession, because she'll never really be that way. She'll always be the posh girl with the mockney accent..not a raging feminist.
First song is well good.
This is a great album.
I've Got A Secret = 10/10
When her first album came out I was working at Woolworths
and it was on constantly. I was surprised at how not awful it was, despite her voice.
I'll Spotify this, if that has become a verb, over the weekend.
It's a new album.
They're reviewing it. They review lots of albums.
Thankfully
Covering this is much more interesting than some random generic indie twiddle.
intelligent posting, as ever
The Kate Nash dubstep remix album is out next week
have we not covered we should have done?
if you're gonna complain, at least use the opportunity to highlight what we're missing. constructive criticism is always listened to.
fyi a review of Kate Nash will get about 9000 more hits than a review of something people have never heard of.
^ my best friend is you
You see the reviews this week? Or last week?
Are they all records which the Radio 1 demographic will love? Are they all similar to Kate Nash? Try pulling your head out of your backside for once.
I'm defending Kate Nash here, this isn't good...
More quality control huh?
I expect your appointment as person in charge of reviews any day now. It's clearly the only way to solve the situation.
please name all these great recordsthat we're not covering.
your profile doesn't even say what you like.
be happy to read your site full of reviews of stuff we don't cover. however, i would say it's pretty hard for us to write about stuff we don't like just for the sake of being 'open-minded'.
hate something, change something, hate something change something....
Hey troll
stop trolling.
because he's just saying things to be irritating
without really backing them up. We reviewed the Kate Nash album because it comes under the pretty broad remit of things we review and I'm sure he's aware of that. The suggestion that the review mark (a 7/10) was in any way based on the number of hits it was likely to get is absurd and I'm sure he knows it. The nature of the site is that we review lots of things. Today we've reviewed a metal album (Lair of the Minoatur), a jazz album (Mulatu Steps Ahead), whatever Gogol Bordello are, and a couple of indie records (Frog Eyes and Darwin Deez). Blithely stating that he doesn't read the reviews and then criticising the review policy as limited because he's read a Kate Nash album was reviewed is trolling in my book, yup.
^
his main beef seems to be that DiS doesn't review music he likes, but does review music he doesn't like. Which begs the question, why is he on DiS?
Open minded, eh?
Then you won't mind the site reviewing Kate Nash.
Now shoo, you tedious bumtrumpet.
Ah, so they should only review stuff you like
Again
DiS reviews lots of albums, writes about lots of acts, I seriously doubt a great act are going to lose their shot at being heard by more people or getting more exposure because of one lousy review.
NO ARTISTIC MERIT
Some good points made here
as to the merits of reviewing the record. I really do hate her music though. What's Bernard Butler up to?? He'll be doing La Roux next. For fuck's sake...
Mansion Song = Dockers MC
Anyone know the poet Laura Dockrill, aka Dockers MC?
www.myspace.com/lauradockrill
I love her completely and Kate Nash's Mansion Song is definitely err, 'inspired by' her. Still surprisingly ok though. I'm listening to it for the first time, but it's better than Made of Bricks and the things I found annoying in the first one seem to be a bit toned down.... at least, so far. I'm only eight songs in.
they are really good friends apparently
I suppose that explains it
wow.
There are some pretty massive overreactions to this review here. It's a pop album with an element of credibility that has every right to be reviewed here. Kate Nash is always a bit of a talking point around these parts and to ignore what she is doing would be some wierd act of denial. If you don't like her and aren't interested in her don't read the review, don't spotify the album, don't comment on the thread.
I for one have a healthy curiosity about everything out there and don't have to like it to enjoy an informed opinion.
Oh and Bernard Butler has been horrifically over producing mainstream acts for some time. Didn't he completely shit on Black Kids? Duffy anyone? La Roux don't need any help (or heavy handed strings) with their production.
^this
Bernard Butler makes everything sound all smooth and parmaviolet-sweet, but strips away any intimacy or nuance the song mightve had, IMO
Crikey
'Mansion House' really is a bit of a, erm, departure, isn't it?
just terrible
i feel like you're all joking.
I saw her on Jools Holland and it was literally one of the most frighteningly awful things I've ever heard in my life
I honestly wanted to watch it through my fingers it was so bad. Do people who come on here really honestly like this crap?
umm...why shouldn't they?
I don't get all this "if you post on DiS you can't like..." shit. Why can't you like "typical" drowned in sound bands and Kate Nash?
I'm not getting in to an argument here, I can't be bothered. I'm just saying.
I don't care that people don't like her either.
I don't care what music other people like, at all. I do, however, disagree with this whole telling people they have bad taste 'cause they like a certain band/artist/whatever. Yeah sure, there are plenty of bands I don't like. But if one of my friends liked them I wouldn't ever tell them they have bad taste and mine is better, because they don't have bad taste, they just have different tastes.
The posting on drowned in sound point was more aimed at "Do people who come on here really honestly like this crap?" 'cause...er...there's no reason they shouldn't. That's the comment that wound me up really.
Of course you can like what you like
My expectation is that people who take enough of an interest in music to participate in DiS have probably been exposed to a wide range of the brilliant music that is out there. I simply can't believe that people who know about and may have even heard great music could chose to listen to something as embarrassingly awful as Kate Nash. Her tunes are trite, her lyrics are gratingly awful and her voice sounds like someone's fingers scratching down a blackboard. I simply cannot understand how someone could willingly subject themselves to it.
If you want to listen to a female singer songwriter get the Laura Marling album, or the new Joanna Newsom or either of the Bat for Lashes records or anything by Cat Power or PJ Harvey or investigate Laura Nyro or Judee Sill or Karen Dalton or any of a thousand out there. For God's sake there's masses of great music out there!
I also don't accept that it's somehow wrong to express an opinion about music, even in trenchant terms. I'm passionate about music - both the stuff I like and the stuff I don't like. You can hate the stuff I like, I can hate the stuff you like - that's the way of the world. Of course I think my taste is right, if I didn't it wouldn't be my taste would it?
Of course it's not a genre
I was making exactly the opposite point. All of the people I mention sound completely different from each other. I just can't believe that anyone who listened to them wouldn't find something that that they realised was better than Kate Nash.
well obviously if they listened to something that had exactly the same sound
then that would be 'shit' too (I don't think I used that word - strong though my opinions are I try to express them a little more elegantly)
But
Laura Marling, Joanna Newsom, Bat for Lashes, Cat Power, PJ Harvey, Layra Nyro, Judee Sill, Karen Dalton etc do not sound like Kate Nash, so obviously they can't act as replacements to her.
Who cares whether or not there's tons of other music out there or how someone else might be better according to some magical indie cred. If Nash appeals to someone's personal, subjective taste, then she does and no other artist you can name can change that.
I can't stand Nash myself but it's damn sad when you have to end up stating the bleeding obvious like this on a music forum of all things.
But if we can't express that taste, both pro and anti
then there really is no point in a music forum.
Of course
I mainly threw objection towards the second paragraph of your post, which comes off as "Nash is objectively bad, listen to these (completely different) artists instead", and is a bit awkward in that sense.
And I admit I went off on a tangent in my post, this sort of topic's a musical pet peeve of mine so I went a wee bit ranty. Apologies.
Pretty sure I remember you saying that 'I Still Remember' by Bloc Party is one of your favourite songs of all time.
:''-D
She really is awful...
Her one skill is making Lily Allen seem vaguely less hateable by comparison. I remember when she first came out a few years back, whenever one of her cack songs would come on the radio I'd have a sudden urge to veer into large, fast moving oncoming traffic.
seriously...
no-one actually thinks that Mansion Song is any good, do they? Really? Reeeallly?
I have never cringed so much in my entire life.
Hello
I uh, I kind of do. But then, I'm a sucker for anything spoken-wordy and I like how it makes me feel guity for having a cock and that.
Dockers MC instead, seriously
I think it's pretty good
Different and that. I like the second half a lot.
But then, I played it to my girlfriend, and then kind of felt a bit embarrassed, so maybe it is a bit wank. Who knows any more?
whereas i don't really care for her
the forum on DiS has collectively got a lot more positive about 'mainstream' artists in the last few years IMO, it's nice.
Is her album title supposed to be self-consciously bad grammar
Or is she just illiterate? Either way I don't get it. Music's pretty dire to boot.
To be fair,
You're My Best Friend is an even worse title.
It's a nod to The Bloodhound Gang...
... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8zJbWQ7CVM
If this album had been released on Moshi Moshi
who released her first single, would it be OK to like? I don't care, I'm just interested in what the rules are. Incidentally, I don't understand why everyone is so surprised she's been getting into riot grrrl. I read somewhere she's just moved in with Ryan Jarman. I'd like to think my girlfriend's taste in music improved when she moved in with me (I'm so glad she doesn't read DiS ;-) )
It shouldn't surprise anyone who's paid any attention to her.
Her first album was clearly a bunch of half-baked compositions that her record company had forced through to capitalise on the success of Foundations - she hadn't really been writing or performing much by the time that happened, and she was clearly a bit unprepared for what happened. In interviews she was always talking about riot grrrl, and she's been playing bass for an all-girl punk band for about a year now. Made Of Bricks had three or four pretty great ideas on it but they always hinted towards her having more talent than people seemed to give her credit for - a lot of my mates took the piss out of me for saying so at the time, but now it looks like I might have been right. Still not the craziest change in direction, obviously, but it bodes well for the future.
http://tinyurl.com/ydhjjlj
I've heard people say it's quite hit and miss...
I enjoyed Kate Nash's myspace demos before she got over produced. I'm not ashamed to say so either.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nfa3t2XtTm4
Don't drag me into this.