Kate Nash

For anyone suffering from a little too much Lily Allen or even anyone looking for more Lily Allen, try this up-and-coming teenage Brit on for size. Deciding on music as her career choice after being rejected by theatre and breaking her foot seeing Brokeback Mountain, her parents gave her a guitar to prolong boredom and voila! We have the only teenage, female singer-songwriter you’ll find listing spoken word punk John Cooper Clarke as an influence. Lacking the glossy production strokes of Allen’s debut, this 19-year-old much prefers the D.I.Y., lo-fi sheen of GarageBand. There’s no doubt she isn’t putting it to good use, wasting no time showing her breadth as a multi-faceted songwriter. Give her an acoustic guitar and she’ll serenade you in her sing/speak vocals; but her real talent is with a nascent hip-hop beat. "Caroline’s A Victim” (out on Moshi Moshi in the UK) may sound like it was composed in a matter of seconds, but the flirtatious monotone refrain, wayward bass synths and kindergartener-designed rhythm make it a welcome successor to the Normal’s "Warm Leatherette” — minus the sadomasochistic imagery, of course.
Kate Nash "Caroline’s A Victim"