Coda.fm

Made of Bricks

by Kate Nash

• Listen to a preview now
• Buy it at Amazon.com

Thanks to a gaggle of loyal MySpace friends, Kate Nash skyrocketed to the top of the British charts just a year after penning her first song, so you might expect her first album to sound a bit cobbled together. In reality, it is a wildly exuberant, refreshingly original set of songs that suffers from only a few lyrical clunkers and less-than-realized melodies. For the most part, it follows mentor Lily Allen's genre-busting lead, wrapping charming tunes like "We Get On" and "Pumpkin Soup" around lopsided beats, simple piano melodies, and blunt kiss-offs that Nash delivers through a laughably thick cockney accent. "Foundations" brings everything together beautifully, spinning a romantic argument into a surprisingly poignant and memorable single that confirms her sudden success as no fluke. --Aidin Vaziri