Kate Nash-Made Of Bricks

Say it with me, loud and proud: "THERE'S NOTHING INHERENTLY WRONG WITH POP MUSIC!!!" Now, don't you feel all dirty? Oh stop it. I've said it once and i'll say it again, there's nothing better in the entire world than a great pop song. Inversely, there is nothing worse in the entire world than an utterly terrible pop song. *cough*myhumps*cough*. Oh excuse me! So this overly long intro brings us to Kate Nash. Accused of riding Lily Allen's coattails in the spunky British pop lass department, Kate is her own woman. She hit big in the UK with Foundations, the second track on Made Of Bricks and it's easy to see why, it's just a great pop song about the petty crap everyone has to deal with in relationships because they're in love (or they at least think they are). My personal favorite track is Dickhead, which is a great "how the fuck could you treat someone you love like this" song. And I think we've all felt that way before. Such is the universality of a truly great pop song.

Made Of Bricks is especially strong considering it's Nash's debut record and she is all of 20 years old. AND she wrote all the songs herself. So go her. I mean that. Pop music that's written by it's performer generally ends up being way less souless than some song about teenage lust crapped out by Linda Perry or former members of ABBA.

Another thing that I think makes this record so successful is the production work of Paul "Phones" Epworth. You may be familiar with him as he has remixed tracks by the likes of Bloc Party, The Rapture, Death From Above 1979 among others. Unlike most pop producers Epworth reins in the songs instead of cranking everything up to 11 and letting it all hang out. If the people who produced Pink or Britney Spears had gotten their mits on Made Of Bricks it probably would've been a disaster sonically. Plus his prior production work gives hipsters an excuse to check out Miss Nash's debut. Hey whatever it takes for you to check out these tunes, then do it.