Kate Nash

Kate Nash owes much of this album's success (it had already gone platinum in the UK at the time of its domestic release) to a few choice MySpace plugs from Lily Allen, but her sound nicks largely from Regina Spektor. This jaunty, mostly piano-driven set bears more than a passing resemblance to Spektor's theatrical songcraft and effervescent vocals, with Nash deftly shuffling moods - from the achingly sparse "Nicest Thing" to the sinfully saccharine "Foundations" to the traipsing "Pumpkin Song" - as only a flighty urban twentysomething can.

Last July, around the time she turned twenty, Kate Nash hit Number Two on the British
singles chart with "Foundations." On this debut — just now being released stateside — the
budding star sounds like a young talent who hasn't learned to self-edit: Over music that
ranges from folk to trip-hop, Nash natters on in a thick Brit accent about everything from
mouthwash to CSI. There are brash disses, like when she calls a boyfriend "a dic... More >