''My Best Friend Is You'' is the second studio album by English singer-songwriter

Kate Nash Kate Marie Nash (born 6 July 1987) is an English singer-songwriter and actress. Nash launched her music career in 2005. Her 2007 single " Foundations" became a hit and brought her to public attention in the UK. Her debut album, '' Made of Bricks ...

, released in the United Kingdom on 19 April 2010 and elsewhere on 20 April. On 13 April 2010, Nash appeared on John Kennedy's

XFM Radio X is a British National commercial radio station focused on alternative music, primarily indie rock, and owned by Global. Radio X launched in 1989 as a pirate radio station, a licensed London-wide station in 1997 and nationally in 2015 ...

show ''Xposure'', where they did a track-by-track interview playing the whole of the album. The album spawned three official singles: the lead single " Do-Wah-Doo" achieved the most commercial success, charting respectively in European countries. "I've Got A Secret" was released as a promotional single and the fourth single overall.

Singles

* " Do-Wah-Doo" was the first single from the album. Nash confirmed on her blog that she filmed the music video for the single on 18 February 2010; "I shot the video for Do-Wah-Doo last week on Thursday and it was so so much fun! The best fun I ever had on a video shoot. It stars a lot of my wonderful friends who are pretty much amazing. I wrote the treatment almost a year ago, it's a love story set on a plane in the late 50s, for some reason the idea has always been in my head." Nash also posted some pictures of the video shoot, showing her and her friends (including photographer and close friend Wesley Goode, who starred in Nash's video for "

Pumpkin Soup Pumpkin soup is a usually 'bound' (thick) soup made from a purée of pumpkin. It is made by combining the meat of a blended pumpkin with broth or Stock (food), stock. It can be served hot or cold, and is a common Thanksgiving dish in the United ...

") on a plane. The music video was available from 4 March 2010. The single charted at number 15 on the UK Singles Chart and number 36 in Ireland. The single also received a considerable amount of chart success in European countries such as Belgium and Germany. * "

Kiss That Grrrl "Kiss That Grrrl" is a song by English indie pop singer-songwriter Kate Nash, featured on her 2010 second album '' My Best Friend Is You''. Written by Nash and produced by Bernard Butler, it was released as the second single from the album on 12 ...

" was the second single release. It follows the 60s-girlband theme that her recent singles have had, and nods to Nash's fondness to girl groups such as the

Shirelles The Shirelles were an American girl group formed in Passaic, New Jersey in 1957. They consisted of schoolmates Shirley Owens (later Shirley Alston Reeves), Doris Coley (later Doris Kenner-Jackson), Addie "Micki" Harris (later Addie Harris McFadd ...

the Chiffons :''The Chiffons also briefly recorded under the name The Four Pennies; for the British band of the latter name see The Four Pennies.'' The Chiffons are an American girl group originating from the Bronx, a borough of New York City, in 1960. Hist ...

and

the Ronettes The Ronettes were an American girl group from Washington Heights, Manhattan, New York City. The group consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett, and their cousin Nedra Talley. The ...

. It is also a reference to the

riot grrrl Riot grrrl is an underground feminist punk movement that began during the early 1990s within the United States in Olympia, Washington and the greater Pacific Northwest and has expanded to at least 26 other countries. Riot grrrl is a subcultur ...

scene of the early 1990s. The song received mixed reviews and the music video received generally negative reviews from critics. It was a commercial failure, charting just outside the top 200 on the UK Singles Chart. * "Later On" was confirmed as the third single by Nash on her

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page, stating that she had filmed the video and thought it might be the best video yet. It was released on 18 October 2010 and promoted mainly through her UK tour on the week of the singles release. * "I've Got a Secret" was issued as the fourth and final single from ''My Best Friend Is You'', confirmed by Nash on her ''My Ignorant Youth'' blog. Nash stated that a physical vinyl single would be available, like "Later On", through the second leg of her UK tour, which began on 20 March 2011, entitled the ''After-School Club Tour''. The single contains the b-side "Kate & Breasts Intro Duck Ton Song Tour 2010".

Tracks

* "I Just Love You More" was made available on Nash's official website for free digital download. The song was previewed on radio station

, on which it received a mostly positive reaction from listeners. * A demo version of "Don't You Want to Share the Guilt?" appeared as a B-side on the single "Merry Happy" from the previous album '' Made of Bricks''. * "I Hate Seagulls" and "Pickpocket" were both played at intimate venues in 2008 while Kate was still promoting the previous album. They were posted on YouTube and received many views before being confirmed as new tracks for the album.

Reception

The album was generally met with positive reviews from critics. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, a

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...

score of 69, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

granted the album 3 stars out of 5, noting it sounded "professional" and compared the album's sound with

Amy Winehouse Amy Jade Winehouse (14 September 1983 – 23 July 2011) was an English singer and songwriter. She was known for her deep, expressive contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres, including soul, rhythm and blues and jazz. A membe ...

's, yet also commented "the aim of much of y Best Friend Is Youseems to be simply getting Kate Nash airplay without worrying overly much about a musical backing that suits her songwriting." Andrzej Lukowski of ''

Drowned in Sound ''Drowned in Sound'', sometimes abbreviated to ''DiS'', is a UK-based music webzine financed by artist management company Silentway. Founded by editor Sean Adams, the site features reviews, news, interviews, and discussion forums. History ''D ...

'' denotes confusion on the album sounding "both indie and universal" and called the album "rather daring" for a "mainstream album". ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' granted four out of five stars, praising Nash' growth as an artist. The Irish Times named the album their "Album of the Week" and called it "a considerable step from its predecessor".

Artwork

The official artwork for the sleeve leaked on 17 March 2010 appearing first on Kuwaiti music blog Loft965.com. On 9 April 2010, Nash took part in a timesonline.co.uk web chat. When asked a question about the album's artwork she replied:

"It's been pretty stressful getting all the artwork together on this album because I've cared so much about it and had so many ideas and wanted it to be perfect for my second record. I worked with a lady called Kate Gibb who does screen printing, we screen printed a bunch of photos and some of my own objects to create collages inspired by images that I collected and loved, they varied from the bauhaus art movement to punk and lo fi record covers because I love the simplicity in those. I've just got through all the final artwork and it was worth the hardwork because I love how it looks. I try to be as involved as possible in every single aspect of what I do so that it represents me properly and because it's fun and I care and I'm a control freak.""The Culture Clinic live web chat: Kate Nash answers your questions"
, ''Times Online'', 30 March 2010

Track listing

Personnel

;Primary musicians *

–

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

on all tracks;

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

on tracks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 12 and 13;

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

on tracks 5, 9, 10 and 11;

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

on tracks 5, 9, 11 and 14;

keyboard Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

s on tracks 5, 9 and 11;

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

on tracks 7 and 8;

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

s on tracks 10 and 14;

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

on track 10;

string String or strings may refer to: *String (structure), a long flexible structure made from threads twisted together, which is used to tie, bind, or hang other objects Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Strings'' (1991 film), a Canadian anim ...

arrangement In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

s on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6;

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

and mixing on tracks 8 and 14;

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

assistance on track 9; engineering and mixing on track 14;

art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

*Jay Malhotra –

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

on tracks 2, 3, 6 and 7; guitar on tracks 4, 7 and 10;

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( or , : bells and : set) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the vibraphone. The glo ...

and

ukulele The ukulele ( ; from haw, ukulele , approximately ), also called Uke, is a member of the lute family of instruments of Portuguese origin and popularized in Hawaii. It generally employs four nylon strings. The tone and volume of the instrumen ...

on track 3; production, engineering and mixing on track 8 *

Bernard Butler Bernard Joseph Butler (born 1 May 1970) is an English musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as the first guitarist with Suede, until his departure in 1994. He has been hailed by some critics as the greatest guitarist of his ...

– synthesizers on 4, 9, 10 and 11; bass on tracks 1, 5 and 9; bongos on tracks 5 and 10; organ on tracks 5 and 12;

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

on track 5; production, engineering and mixing on all tracks except 8 and 9 *Elliott Andrews – drums on all tracks except 8, 9 and 14 *Brett Alaimo – guitar on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 *Ian Burdge –

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 11 and 13 ;Additional musicians *Jon Jackson – guitar on tracks 2, 6 and 7; bass on tracks 4 and 10 *Bruce White –

viola The viola ( , also , ) is a string instrument that is bow (music), bowed, plucked, or played with varying techniques. Slightly larger than a violin, it has a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of ...

on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 *Ali Dods –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 *Everton Nelson – violin on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 *Louisa Fuller – violin on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 *Sonia Slaney – violin on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 *Sally Herbert – string arrangements on tracks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 *

Ryan Jarman Ryan James Jarman is a British musician who is the guitarist and vocalist with English lo-fi indie rock band the Cribs. The Cribs Jarman formed the Cribs in the early 2000s with his twin brother Gary and younger brother Ross. The band is know ...

– violin solo on "My Best Friend Is You" ;Production personnel *Richard Woodcraft – engineering on all tracks except 8 and 9 *Robbie Nelson – engineering on all tracks except 8 and 9 *Adie Kaye – engineering assistance on all tracks * Chris Potter – mastering ;Additional personnel *

Mat Maitland Mat Maitland is an English art director and visual artist who lives in London. He is renowned for his photo collage works and for co-creating numerous music mascots for music artists because of his creative direction, including the "seafox" for ...

– art direction *Kate Gibb –

artwork A work of art, artwork, art piece, piece of art or art object is an artistic creation of aesthetic value. Except for "work of art", which may be used of any work regarded as art in its widest sense, including works from literature ...

*Clare Nash –

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

Chart performance

The album charted respectively at number 8 and 26 on the

UK Album Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts ...

and the

Irish Albums Chart The Irish Albums Chart is the Irish music industry standard albums popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The charts were previously compiled on behalf of IRMA by Chart-Track, and have been compiled by the ...

in its first week, however quickly dropped in its second week to number 39 and 40. It charted at number 62 on the Billboard 200 and number 6 in the German Album Charts.

Tour

On her website, Nash announced she would be touring from 26 May 2010, till end of 2010.

References

{{Authority control Kate Nash albums 2010 albums Albums produced by Bernard Butler