Kate Nash may have started with an album full of diss tracks about ex-boyfriends in the guise of optimistic pop song. However, since 2007 Miss Nash’s songs have evolved in both substance and style. Girl Talk certainly contains many of the same bratty sentiments from her Made of Bricks days, though is far more concentrated and aggressive. Nash is unashamedly loud about being a feminist and it is clear that Girl Talk is an album with an incredibly restricted demographic. As a female listener in their early twenties, it feels as though these songs are written for me – the songs telling tales of her own early-twenties experience indisputably trying to rousing a response in her listeners; to get them to (figuratively) join her ‘Girl Gang’ (the name of her all-female touring band.)
And in all honesty, I am desperate to be right there with her; standing at her side as she nonchalantly drawls ‘I don’t have time to die’ over a very Cramps-reminiscent bass line in Death Proof. Feeling exactly what it is like to rid yourself of unhealthy friendships such as the ones she describes in Fri-end? and have definitely felt the anger and frustration of All Talk, her pretty voice spitting out a brash ‘Fuck You’ with plenty of vitriol. At 15 tracks, it is a lengthy listen, however each song had something within it that made it memorable; an uncompromising lyric or abrasive guitar riff that gives the album a reinvigorating boost.
Made of Bricks was a brilliant collection of anecdotal pop songs, but Kate Nash has definitely grown up into a strong, brave and fiercely intelligent young woman and Girl Talk has a clear agenda and I do think it will positively inspire those it sets out to.
BY ALEXANDRA DUGUID
Best Track: All Talk, Rap for Rejection, Death Proof
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: VIVIAN GIRLS, THE BANGLES
In A Word: Unwavering
