Kate Nash Is Back With Girl Talk

Dan Goldberg ’17 / Emertainment Monthly Staff Writer

It seems that there is a punky, tomboyish twin of Kate Nash that has taken over her recording. Gone are the uppity, sweet, sarcastic tunes of her 2007 breakout album, Made of Bricks, that featured songs such as “Foundations” and “D*ckhead.”

 

This was Kate Nash as the girl-next-door-that-just-won’t-take-it-anymore. Her songs were soft, yet contained the lyrics of something much more aggressive. See the opening of the aforementioned “D*ckhead,” for an excellent example. This Kate Nash is gone. Kate Nash of Girl Talk is here.

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Don’t get me wrong, the head, heart, and tongue of Nash are as sharp as ever on her most recent album, but the style is a far cry from Made of Bricks. Sure, one could have seen this coming from some of the tracks on My Best Friend Is You, her 2010 album, but not like this. This album is Kate Nash with an edge.

Most of Girl Talk could be easily mistaken for Joan Jett on a good day—namely, the single off of the album “Fri-End?” The content of the lyrics has not changed with Nash’s third album, she still belts out song after song about lost lovers, losing friends, revenge, and searching for happiness in a chaotic world—it is with Girl Talk that the music has begun to consistently match the chaos in the lyrics. By the end of the album, however, the final three songs calm down to a melancholy—mirroring the feeling after the rage lifts.

Without a doubt, one can feel a rawer version of Nash on Girl Talk, an effect that no doubt comes from her stylistic choices.

This synced experienced, however, comes with mixed results. Some of Nash’s appeal derived from the tension between what is being said, and how it said. While this distance between medium and message makes me choose Made of Bricks over Girl Talk, it shouldn’t keep fans of the poppy-punk genre from getting the album.

Rating: 6.5/10