Kate Nash – Girl Talk

Kate Nash can often be found in The Cat and Mutton on Broadway Market, but it is unlikely she has had much time to relax there of late, as the singer sets out this month for a tour of Canada and the USA to promote her new album Girl Talk.

In recent years Nash’s star has waned and not long ago  she was dropped by her record label. “It doesn’t matter,” she drawls in opening track ‘Part Heart’, the distorted guitars doubling up defiantly behind  heavily reverbed vocals, and any trace of the piano pop she once plied is long gone.

Musically and lyrically, Girl Talk is an angry album, but emotional disturbance doesn’t always make good art. ‘Fri-end’ aims for riot grrrl punk rock before limply settling for something closer to Kenickie, while ‘Rebel Guitar’ is an exercise in stock surf rock with a vampish ‘doctor, doctor’ skit sandwiched in the middle.

But while not found wanting for throwaway numbers, there is the odd gem, too. On ‘Are You There Sweetheart?’ the thrashing guitar player takes a rest, and the result is something admittedly softer but infinitely more subtle, with a picked guitar counterpoint the perfect foil to the refrain. “You were always watching my neck from the back of the room,” Nash sings, her sincerity finally outstripping the bitterness – and to moving effect.