Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Hi, Yall!

Hi Xzyqunity readers, I am Natasha, an employee at WSVA home of the rock, aka the best thing that ever happened to college radio....
This is my first post on this here blogg thing, but that is because I didn't know how to write. But in a lifetime special of the week, I overcame this huge hurdle and managed to get into lit and writing 1, which changed my life to say the least.
So now I can finally write the album reviews that the dear WSVA Station Manager has been asking me to write for many a year now and I will start off the lovely Kate Nash - Made of Bricks.





When I first heard Kate Nash’s first single from her new album ‘Made of Bricks’, it definitely evoked happy type emotions from me. The adorable pop-ness of the song ‘Foundations’ is infectious, and upbeat while at the same time sentimental and melancholy. I was also excited, because I thought that it signaled the maturing of Kate Nash, and a new direction from that ‘Caroline’s a Victim’ shit she put out earlier. So with that in mind I listened to her album, and tried to ignore all the tedious hype that surrounded it.

An introduction track for any artist is a bold statement. It says, “hi, I am ____, get to know me through clip of music that isn’t a full song, because I am underestimating your attention span”. And when done right, it can be a marvelous thing, unfortunately Kate Nash’s intro “I Like To Play” is crap. It is similar to ‘Caroline’s a Victim’, because she inanely repeats a term over and over with out really singing it, but in ‘Play’ she took out the old and tired electro drumbeats. It is still a pretty weak example of a song, even if it is only supposed to be an intro. The album goes on, and has some happy, playful, and unpretentious moments with “Foundations” and “Mouthwash” but then falters and never really regains the upbeat yet nostalgic quality that first captured my interest. For the rest of the album Kate Nash returns to some sort of comfort zone, forcing her accent, and repeating insignificant words and terms over and over again.(And yes, I can recognize that I do like Damon Albarn, and I can see the hypocrisy in letting Nash’s mockney accent really get to me… but still!!!!)

A lot of the songs on the ‘Made of Bricks’ album are so very LiteFM that Nash feels forced to save them by adding lame quirks, be it a cuss or a inflection in her voice ala Regina Spektor, and often the addition of these quirks just feels cheap. A good example would be ‘Dickhead’, a song that is oh so very ordinary that nothing really stands out, until the term ‘dickhead’ is inexplicably added a mere 76 times. Don’t check those facts, that was a estimated guess. Not that I am against bad language or in anyway a music prude, but after a while it just gets kind of 'ok we get it you can throw swear words around, you are really edgy'.

Of course now that her album is being released state side, which is why I am only now writing this review, all of this has pretty much been said before, and the comparison of Nash with the two songstresses she simultaneously rips off (Lily Allen and Regina Spektor) has been made a thousand times (again, don’t check those facts, that was a estimated guess). But I am happy to say that I am over the initial rage I felt at the fact that a pretty ordinary and not so talented person could capture the love of a nation I hold so dear to my heart – and also the love of The Cribs Ryan Jarrman- but whatevs, I really am over it. And now that Nash is slated to be the “next big thing” over in the USA, by several institutions that I already didn’t have very much respect for, ahem, Rolling Stone, I only find it mildly annoying that some one would use the “I’m indie, see I am dressed different!” card when their music is so regular and reminiscant of churned out pop, as well as using the I am British-Working-Class-innit? card (she is middle class, but whatevs!), it would just be preferable if she wasn’t on my telly and went back to being that localized problem overseas.



Tune in next week for another special episode of Tasha-Hates-Women-In-Music: Episode II - Sia!
Only Joking these are the only two women in music that I don't like. Have a happy day!!
-Tasha

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