Kate Nash - Caroline's A Victim/Birds

Since Kate Nash is presented as a songwriter, Caroline's A Victim is probably a poor representation of her work. Consisting of a garage bassline, Nash's cockney chant of the title and a stolid drum machine, it comes across as a poor rip-off of her mate Lily Allen, painfully arch and lazy. Birds is an acoustic ballad that has a little more depth but stakes out no new territory - the whole release smacks of arrogance and complacency, claiming lo-fi integrity for minimal effort. [Gareth K Vile]