Pooey strings and an album called Ring

Hello there. It’s bloody freezing in Leeds today and I walked home as quickly as I could, but as I passed a student house on the way home I had to stop, because I heard a strangely familiar yet also very difficult-to-place song dripping down from the open window. I waited a moment, until I recognised the dulcet LANDAAAAN tones of Kate Nash’s not-at-all-put-on singing voice. And – honestly – it was from her second album. Yes, ladies and gentleman, she has a second album. And someone was actually playing it. And it’s about as memorable and exciting as having a poo. But with less relief.

However, the over-arching complaint I’ve always had with that little-known piece of circular shiny plastic is that it has too many instruments. Kate Nash’s charm (yes I do think she had charm, on her first album) was always the simplicity, the childishness, even the rawness at times – cf. her entire lyrics to ‘Play’: “I like to play” x ONE MILLION. But on this second album, she only went and whacked on a bloody strings section. And the thing is, it almost certainly wasn’t her idea. It was almost certainly some producer’s idea – some producer who should know better. Strings sections, 9 times out of 10, ruin an otherwise quite interesting indie/pop song – they add nothing, they take away all the intimacy… Orchestras are big for a reason, female singer-songwriters play backstreet bars for a reason. One offers grand, sweeping melodrama, the other, beautiful, fragile intimacy – and it is very hard to make the two mix.

But – but – it can be done. And this woman has done it:

‘Home’, by Glasser, from her album ‘Ring‘

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