Album Review

Kate Nash – Girl Talk

• 6th Mar 2013

When singer-songwriter Kate Nash emerged from the London music scene in 2007 she appeared to have the world in her hands following the release of Made of Bricks, her debut record. The collection the fiery red headed musician delivered to us from her prior obscurity unraveled a strings of successful singles including the number two hit Foundations, Mouthwash and Pumpkin Soup. She was a welcome and sought after addition to the festival scene for a number of years following the release of Made of Bricks and built up an enormous cult following.

Nash’s follow-up sophomore effort, My Best Friends Is You was released in 2010, three years after the musician’s debut and carried on Nash’s success streak with singles such as the Top 15 hit, Do-Wah-Doo.

Kate released her third studio album this week titled Girl Talk and when we received a copy to give our thorough going-over we weren’t entirely convinced that we could fall in love with Kate Nash all over again.

Opening up the new collection is Part Head and we are a little disheartened by this first offering. The track casts a drippy, melancholic and going by the lyrics, a deliberate drunken vocal over a simple instrumentation. The end result is a song that could have been released by any one of the thousands of female-led garage bands out there. If Kate is trying to convince us she is back for good then based on this one – she needs to try a whole lot harder.

Two clangy, punk influenced inclusions follow in the form of Death Proof and Fri-End. Both feature Kate’s wailing vocals shredding their way through a meaty backdrop of guitars. Relatively catchy in their delivery, both tracks offer solace after the dissatisfying opening track and show a little more promise for Kate’s latest record.

The following Sweetheart offers a light at the end of the tunnel and sounds quite reminiscent of the now defunct Australian band Killing Heidi. Kate’s accented vocals have fun with the tracks bouncy melody and offer the records first lighthearted number that could easily be a future single hit for the musician.

Angst laden Sister is probably the records most energetically angry addition with a string of dismissive and explosive lyrics that show off a side of the singer-songwriter that we are less acquainted with.

Further into the record the bass heavy All Talk combines a storming instrumentation of clashing guitars and an aggressive vocal arrangement that could rival any hit from the punk genre while 3AM takes an entirely different approach and unfolds as one of the records more lighthearted and whimsical inclusions. The vocals are a little monotonous and remind us of early Lily Allen material but the track is one of the highlights on Girl Talk and one that shows off Kate’s wide style range.

Closing the record is Lullaby, an instrumentally rich number that begins gently with Kate’s vocals filling in the track with an occasional beat backing her. In the songs final 60 seconds we are transported toward a loud, orchestral climax that would be worthy of any major epic film soundtrack.
It has been relatively quite on the Kate Nash front over the past 3 years since the stars sophomore release and as such the news that the singer was in the studio didn’t exactly set the music world on fire. Kate’s disappearance from the forefront of UK female singer-songwriters quickly opened up a spot for a string of strong, female pop starlets to take over and fill the gap left by Nash. It’s a harsh music world and if you are slow on the mark then you may just be replaced and with that in mind we aren’t entirely sure Kate will once again become the staple in music that she once was.

Girl Talk isn’t a bad release for Nash however after such a prominent hiatus from her previous commercial standing in the industry we were hoping for a record with a little bit more of a memorable kick to it. The record lacks the radio friendly quality of her previous studio efforts and that could be the downfall to Girl Talk. Though there are a few notable numbers on the record there are far too many inclusions found on Girl Talk that displays a singer-songwriter whose glory days a far behind her.

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Venue: Girl Talk
Support Band: Fontana