Mangaeyes

My Best Friend Is You by Kate Nash
2010, Fiction/Geffen records



'My Best Friend Is You' is so different to Nash's first album, 'Made of Bricks', yet it has her unique, alternative style all over it. Every track here is expertly composed by Nash herself and brilliantly produced by Bernard Butler, with one produced by Jay Malholtra.

You definitely need to be a fan of Nash's first album, which feeds you into her quirky songwriting, otherwise songs like "I Just Love You More" and "I've Got a Secret" become irritating and tiresome with their repetitive lyrics. Despite this, Nash's lyrics have made a huge jump forwards, as have her vocals; the idea of suicide is assertively handled in "Take Me To A Higher Plane", with Nash shouting that "everyone I f***ing hated is in this room", while "Paris" handles the problems of growing up and loneliness, with Nash solemnly chanting "you said you'd lend me anything, I think I'll have your company".

There are a few looks back to her debut album with songs like "Pickpocket" and "I Hate Seagulls" but these are overshadowed by the more magnificently produced new sounds of "Do-Wah-Doo" or "Early Christmas Present" - even "You Were So Far Away", a slow, whispery story of a prostitute who gets urinated on, manages to stand out through it's amazing production. Another highlight is the spoken piece, "Mansion Song", with Nash brashly spitting out a feminist crusade against groupies.

Overall a great album that's quite plainly just so much better than her first album - Nash has more to say and showcases this with her fierce vocals and clever composing, all wrapped up by Butler who clearly understood Nash's quest for merging 60s girl-group with Riot Grrrl, achieving this as much as anyone could.

10/10

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