Once upon a time, Kate Nash broke out as a charming indie-pop London piano girl singing about break-ups. Then, later, she shifted to neo-Riot Grrrl guitar punk – if still singing about break-ups. Now, Nash returns with her first record in five years, the Kickstarter-funded Yesterday Was Forever, where she marries the two styles for some of her best songs to date.
It’s all introduced & exemplified by the great opener, “Life In Pink”, a catchy mixture of pop & punk, of old & new Nash. The return of Nash’s indie-pop, in particular her piano, is the most notable aspect of Yesterday, on pieces like “Pink”, “Take Away”, and “Drink About You”, but she’s also got sexier synthesized in “Body Heat” & “Karaoke Kiss”, even her quick spoken word, this time on mental health, “Musical Theatre”. And Nash still has her way with lyrics, whether name-checking Buffy the Vampire Slayer (obviously her favorite show) or the so-Nash line, “Kiss me / In the karaoke bar”.
At fourteen tracks, there are some songs that could have probably been skipped (the harsh/pop mix “California Poppies” isn’t as great a mash-up), as it does feel like Nash is making up for lost time by trying to do everything, including stripped (“Today”) and strum (“Always Shining”). She even tributes music itself and what it means to her, in the piano-touch closer “To the Music I Belong”. But it all just shows how much it means to her, and to her fans, as they get all of Kate Nash.
