Kate Nash Foundations EP

With a faux Cockney accent more phonetically convoluted than an Irvine Welsh novel and a proclivity for cocktail dresses and "trainahs," it’s hard not to Pitchfork Kate Nash aside as another Myspace-generated Britpopstress a la Lily Allen -- though the melancholic sway, clever wordplay, and woozy pop ingenuity of “Foundations” should make you pause before doing so.

The remainder of this four-song EP doesn’t have nearly as much fight. Crossbreed the short-story lyrics of “Navy Taxi,” the weird plastic sexuality of the synth-riddled “Caroline’s a Victim,” and the whimsical airiness of “Habanera,” and the result would be just one whole song that comes close to the sharp, winking metapop of Allen’s illusory lower-middle-class narratives, which Nash’s title track replicates and occasionally betters.

But that’s more Baudrillard (or is it the Kooks?) than Welsh, innit?

*** 

Artist: http://www.katenash.co.uk

Label: http://www.myspace.com/fictionrecords

Review by Travis Woods