Kate Nash

No matter how sweet her hooks, Kate Nash will always dish out the hard, bitter truth—especially to those who are out of line. Since catching the ear of fellow alt-pop provocateur Lily Allen on MySpace in the mid-2000s, the London-raised singer/songwriter has defined her sound by its unpredictability, experimenting with piano-pounding rock, frenetic garage-punk and fizzy synth-pop—sometimes all at once. Just as loose and playful with her lyrics, Nash balances the puerile with the profound, all in the name of love, self-preservation and feminism. At just 20, she topped the UK charts with her 2007 debut album, Made of Bricks, and its relationship-crumbling anthems like “Foundations”. With her sassy put-downs and London accent, she was quickly likened to Allen, but Nash has long sidestepped those comparisons. She spent the rest of her 20s flexing her songwriting chops, working with Suede’s Bernard Butler for the girl-group-inspired My Best Friend Is You, then digging into her punk side with the riot-grrrl-leaning Girl Talk. Age has certainly not softened that edge—in sound and attitude—as Nash continues to tell off every jerk (2018’s “Hate You”) while trying to find peace within herself (2021’s “Misery”).