Kate Nash

English songwriter Kate Nash owed her career to two pieces of bad luck: She was rejected by the Old Vic Theatre School, which dashed her hopes of an acting career, then she broke her foot at home, which nearly cost her job in the fashion world. While laid up she began writing songs, and this turned her luck around. She began uploading songs online and the first to catch on was "Caroline's a Victim," also the A-side of her first single. With its half-spoken, heavily-accented vocal and skeletal arrangement, the single was oddly reminiscent of the Flying Lizards' "Money"; an accompanying video underlined the 20-year-old Nash's endearing quirkiness and the song was an underground hit. She quickly signed a record deal, but to the surprise of many her label was Fiction, the UK indie that had broken the Cure three decades earlier. Her first album Made of Bricks included her breakthrough hit "Foundations," which went #2 in the UK drove the album to #1. "Foundations" had a fullier, poppier production and more of her now-trademark Cockney-accented humor, though the song's underlying theme was again serious, looking at the last stages of a relationship. Along with the commercial success came a critical backlash; an oft-quoted review in The Independent said it was in "pole position for worst album of the year." Nonetheless it produced two further UK hits in "Mouthwash" and "Pumpkin Soup." Meanwhile she and Cribs frontman Ryan Jarman (who she met on Jools Holland's TV show) became known as one of UK pop's glamor couples. All wasn't entirely well, however; she confessed in interviews that the pressures of a world tour caused her a temporary breakdown and a struggle with obsessive-compulsive disorder. For the second album My Best Friend is You she worked with producer and ex-Suede member Bernard Butler who encouraged her love for '60s girl-group pop, which emerged on the singles "Do-Wah-Doo" and "Kiss That Grrl" (which again had grabbing videos, respectively depicting her as a stewardess and a'60s chorus girl). 2013's Girl Talk was a marked change of direction, with fewer jokes, louder guitars and a more explicitly feminist tone, reflecting her admiration of riot grrl icons Kathleen Hanna and Courtney Love. Though it got her most favorable reviews to date, it brought her hit streak to an abrupt end, only reaching #85 in the UK with no charted singles. With the new sound came a more politically active stance, as she performed at LBGT rallies, supported Russian punks Pussy Riot and wrote an unreleased song for the Occupy London movement. Now recording for her own Girl Gang label, Nash crowd-sourced her fourth album, 2018's Yesterday Was Forever. Its lyrics were often upfront about the effects of anxiety and OCD, while the music scaled back the grunge and returned to the giddy pop sound of her peak years.