Kate Nash - My Best Friend Is You [Album]

I wrote this review when I first listened to the album, so these are based on first impressions. Mansion Song and You Were So Far Away in particular have grown on me a lot.

If you want to know which songs are explicit, here's a list:

Don't You Want To Share The Guilt?
Do-Wah-Doo
Take Me To A Higher Plane
Mansion Song (this one is really bad in terms of language!)
You Were So Far Away
I Hate Seagulls

I've Got A Secret is labelled as explicit on iTunes, which is probably due to the line "homophobic pricks", but it's not actually swearing. Apologies to any homophobics here, it's just Kate's way of expressing herself in that song. She explains about the song in a track-by-track which is on YouTube.






My Best Friend Is You
Release Date: 19th April 2010
Chart Position: #8
Format: CD, Download

Star Ratings Out Of 5:
Paris: 5
Kiss That Grrrl: 5
Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt?: 5
I Just Love You More: 4
Do-Wah-Doo: 5
Take Me To A Higher Plane: 4
I’ve Got A Secret: 4
Mansion Song: 2
Early Christmas Present: 5
Later On: 5
Pickpocket: 5
You Were So Far Away: 3
I Hate Seagulls: 5

Reviews:
Paris: A nice upbeat song, very catchy. A big change with the breakdown bit, but then we go upbeat again! It'll have you singing "You'll never listen to me" all day!

Kiss That Grrrl: A great start to the song, very beat-y. It contains the sentence "I bet her feet don't even stink" in true Kate style. It sounds a bit horrid to the man in the chorus, but the happy beat to it really makes you forget what it's about sometimes. Not too keen on the higher notes at the end of the first, second and fourth lines of Verse 3, but the instrumental before the slow chorus is short but amazing!

Don’t You Want To Share The Guilt?: A nice re-make of the song from the Merry Happy single. The new music really makes it seem like a different song. She sings it beautifully all the way through, and then we get to the monologue bit, where she has a bit of a rant. It can be quite funny, until you get to a word that you don’t want to hear, and it’s not what you’d expect in this sort of song.

I Just Love You More: A nice beat to it. It gives a different feel to Kate. She basically repeats “I just love you more”, then adds “than anything” onto the end of the last one before starting to scream, before starting all over again. A bit basic, but it is quite funny!

Do-Wah-Doo: A very girl-group type of song, with a good introduction. Kate starts singing about how she hates a certain woman. She then goes on to say that’s he reads a book instead and that she doesn’t care, before going into a tag of “bum-ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum”. She then sings the chorus and the tag again. It has a really lively feel to it.

Take Me To A Higher Plane: A nice start to the song, loud and proud. Kate says how she needs to get away, and goes into an Avril Lavigne type of style, before slowing down a bit. It’s a very loud sort of rock song, where she brings out her inner “punk” side that we’ve seen in Model Behaviour and I Just Love You More.

I’ve Got A Secret: Kate starts off singing the lyrics “I’ve got a secret, I can’t tell you”, then saying that people would judge her on the secret. She repeats this, which makes it really catchy. The song breaks down a bit, then starts building up again with loads of background noise. A drumming piece starts going at the end.

Mansion Song: Horrid opening monologue, really quite rude, but the song bit isn’t much. The whole song is generally rude and I’m not a fan of it. There isn’t much to it.

Early Christmas Present: Got a nice tune to it, sounds quite happy, but it is about a depressing issue. Kate does bring this across in the song, but her vocals sound really calm and lovely. There are some backing vocalists during part of the song just going “aaah”. Really nice song.

Later On: Very catchy tune actually. Nice vocals from Kate, and I like the drums. The chorus is very catchy aswell. She sings about how she didn’t mean to let her boyfriend down. The shows how upset she is. I don’t see the point of the counting in the middle of it though.

Pickpocket: Lovely song, but don’t get the pauses in the middle of lines. Love the atmosphere created during the chorus when it slows down, then picks up again. Really great song.

You Were So Far Away: A much slower song, with not as much “oomph” to it. Not as exciting as others, but it is a nicer song to listen to, despite a bit of bad language. A bit boring, though.

I Hate Seagulls: Nice backing music for quite a funny song. Kate lists many of the things she hates, before moving onto things she likes. At the end she says that she loves someone, but doesn’t know how to say it. A really nice song if you think about what it is actually about.

Full Album Review:
So, that’s the full album! Well worth the wait. I went through a lot just to listen to this album, including waiting about 3 hours! I suppose it’s nothing compared to the 5 days we have to wait to own it.

So, the positives. Most of the album has got a 5 star rating, which is always a good sign. The highlists of the album are Tracks 1-5, Early Christmas Present, Pickpocket and I Hate Seagulls, with I’ve Got A Secret and Later On also being very good.

There is only one negative on the album, and that is Mansion Song. I really hate the monologue, and think most of it is unneeded.

Overall, I would give the album a 5/5. All of the good songs overrule Mansion Song, which is a very good sign!