Rhythm & Views

Kate Nash

Recent U.K. export Kate Nash takes swearing in pop songs to whole new level. Her accent is both cute and sexy, especially when she swears, which she does a lot. A lot.

That's a lot of Nash's appeal--it's always fascinating to hear a 20-year-old redhead saying "dick," "shit" and "fuck" perfectly sweetly, without any intent to shock. But when Kate Nash says, "What you being a dickhead for? You're just fucking up situations," she really couldn't put it any other way and have it resonate the way it does.

Put Nash's lyrics and plinking piano against electronic beats and the power of production, and her bluntness gets razor sharp. And it's not only when she swears. The chorus of "Birds" has a boy telling a girl how he feels about her by comparing her to pigeons. The girl's response is a confused, "Wot?" It's so colloquially banal that it becomes almost profound. The same goes for "Foundations"--"You went and got sick on my trainers, I only got these yesterday!"--as well as on the chorus of "Shit Song": "Darling, don't give me shit, because I know that you're full of it."

Yes, Kate Nash sounds a heck of a lot like Lily Allen. But since when was it a bad thing to swear like a sailor without sounding like you just washed up on the banks of cracktown? Dropping the f-bomb like it's as innocuous as "the" can be fucking empowering. Made of Bricks may not be actually profound, but if it gives more girls the confidence to scream bloody murder at the motherfucking world, then I'm all for it.