Kate Nash

Kate Nash's debut LP, Made of Bricks, was released in the U.K. last summer, and she became an overnight sensation, with both the CD and the single "Foundations" going to number one. The 20-year-old from a London suburb pals around with Lily Allen, to whom she's frequently compared. Yet unlike Allen's Alright, Still, Made of Bricks is practically schizophrenic in the way it jumps genres. The electroclash throwaway "Play" leads off the album, ahead of whimsical sing-along "Mouthwash" and the epic, almost-gothic "Mariella." But no matter. Nash is a phenomenal talent who seems able to imagine riffs as easily as she snaps her fingers. She's also got a gift for pointed human observations that don't slow her narratives. "Thursday night, everything's fine, except you've got that look in your eye when I'm telling a story and you find it boring," "Foundations" begins. Though she talks tough like Allen — "I wish that you were more intelligent so you could see that what you are doing is so shitty to me," she says on "Dickhead" — her lines ultimately betray more vulnerability and immaturity than her countrywoman's. But that's not a bad thing. Instead, one looks forward to the development of her art as she gets older.