Kate Nash

You can certainly taste some sugar and spice - not to mention a bracing shot of whiskey-tinged wit - in the music of British singer-songwriter Kate Nash. During her teenage years at London's School for Performing Arts & Technology (alma mater of Amy Winehouse and members of the Kooks), Nash set about writing songs on her laptop and posted them on MySpace while recuperating from a spill that left her with a broken foot. Now 20 years old, after releasing her first singles "Caroline's A Victim" and "Foundations," signing with Fiction/Geffen Records, and entering at #1 on the U.K. charts with her debut album Made of Bricks, Kate Nash is now setting her sights on America. Produced by Paul Epworth (Bloc Party, Babyshambles), Made of Bricks captures the inner child in everyone and the life of a 20 year old who's full of mixed emotions about bad boyfriends and friendships. On the impossibly infectious single "Foundations," Nash describes the crumbling of a relationship in perfect detail. She's self-aware enough to turn the mirror on herself on "Mouthwash," a lilting look at a girl with "a thousand opinions and not the time to explain." Now and again, Epworth drops her into a sonic maelstrom, and she responds with verve, flaunting an impish charisma on songs like the "Pumpkin Soup." Of the album's title Nash says simply, "bricks just say home and family - the things that I can't live without." Indeed, this CD is made of the stuff you need this winter season.