Made of Bricks by Kate Nash
Made of Bricks is the debut album by English indie pop singer-songwriter Kate Nash, released in the United Kingdom on 6 August 2007. The album was a commercial success, topping the UK Albums Chart and spawning a number-two single in the form of "Foundations". The album was later released in Europe on 10 September 2007 and in the United States on 18 September. The album was released five weeks earlier than originally planned due to the popularity of the single "Foundations". The album does not contain the track "Caroline's a Victim", which was released as a limited 7" single, double A-Side with "Birds" on Moshi Moshi Records before "Foundations". "Birds" was included as the fifth track of the album. A version that included a "making of" DVD was available at Best Buy on the album's release in the United States. In the US, Made of Bricks debuted at number 36 on the Billboard 200 with sales of 16,000.
As a teenager, Kate Nash studied at the BRIT School, with hopes of one day becoming an actor. Then, the day after getting her final rejection letter from a theatre school, she fell down a flight of stairs and broke her foot. While immobilised for three weeks, she sat with her electric guitar and decided to start writing songs. (Later, Nash would achieve her screen dreams, starring in 2017’s <i>GLOW</i>.) It’s perhaps fitting, then, that a flair for the dramatic characterises the songs on her debut album <i>Made of Bricks</i>. Every one paints the life of a British teenage girl dealing with first loves and breakups, navigating friendships and nights out, while learning to be herself. On the utterly original single “Foundations” Nash delivers a diatribe to her boyfriend over a jangly piano melody that becomes increasingly aggressive as she resigns herself to the fact that the relationship isn’t working. “Then I’ll use that voice that you find annoyin’/And say something like, ‘Yeah, intelligent input, darlin’/Why don’t you just have another beer then?’” she half says, half sings to the person she’s caught in a push-pull relationship with. The song also features, of course, her most iconic ever lyric: “You said I must eat so many lemons/’Cause I am so bitter/I said, ‘I’d rather be with your friends, mate/’Cause they are much fitter’.” Elsewhere on the record “Merry Happy”, written like a poem to her crush set to some melodic piano plonks, shines with the independent spirit that runs through the record. If a man doesn’t want her, Nash decides to burst with happiness on her own. Nash first aired her music on the social networking site Myspace, catching the attention of Lily Allen, who had done the same before her and who asked her followers to listen to Nash. That propelled the North Londoner to the top of British consciousness—and <i>Made of Bricks</i> to the top of the charts. Much like Allen, Nash manages to be funny and completely emotionally devastating at the same time. In a comforting way, <i>Made of Bricks</i> feels like she is blowing a raspberry at life—while yanking you into her colourful world.
