It’s difficult to know what to make of this sophomore effort from the girl who was somewhat unfairly derided as a Lily Allen imitation after her 2007 debut, Made of Bricks. Initially, the fare seems insubstantial and slightly desperate, as Nash palpably strains to expand her sound , but after a while the attempted experimentation becomes admirable rather than detestable. Buggered if I know why this happens, however it might just be down to the style of the woman herself; she’s so damnably earnest and effervescent in her music that you can’t help but find yourself feeling a grudging warmth towards her efforts.

Those who enjoyed Made of Bricks will certainly not be left wanting. Rambunctiously jovial opener Paris, enjoyable-but-uninspired Later On and Regina-Spektor-esque piano-hokum Pickpocket all unashamedly exhibit the spirit of Nash’s debut. Cringeworthily-titled Kiss that Grrrl is a romantic-envy number that for all the world sounds like a sequel to Made of Bricks’ We Get On. These songs are all pleasant enough, without really breaking any new ground. Still, these tracks build on her reputation – if you were cynical you might see them as merely having been included in order to avoid alienating her fans with the rest of the record, which is a good bit more expansive.
 

Don’t You Want to Share the Guilt feels like it’s going nowhere before culminating with a strange, exuberant, rapid-fire spoken-word section, sounding almost stream of consciousness, which really shouldn’t work as well as it does. A similarly unpromising beginning to I’ve Got a Secret develops into an intriguing track, where slightly eerie vocals are matched with ominous instrumentation. The nifty grunge guitar riffs of I Just Love You More are horrendously let down in the lyrics department – basically just the name of the song repeated ad nauseum, seriously lazy writing – and yet it too represents a positive step for the songstress who hitherto seemed positively welded to her piano.

By far the best track on the album is Take Me To a Higher Plane. It’s impossible to exaggerate just how joyously pleasing this jaunty little number is. Escapist, upbeat and aided by a string melody that Dexy’s Midnight Runners would have been proud of, it fulfils its potential better than anything else on My Best Friend Is You. A gloriously radio-friendly gem, it’s so boisterous, so well-crafted, so bloomin’ catchy that it makes for an absolutely perfect summer song.

It’s not all plain sailing however. Given the level of musical experimentation Kate Nash is undertaking on this album it was inevitable that she’d come unstuck occasionally. Thoroughly abhorrent Mansion Song starts off with an awful rhyming monologue and pretty much degenerates from there into an incoherent mess. Ghastly. The real question that needs to be answered is who in the name of fuckery is responsible for convincing Kate that Do Wah Doo should be the first single?! Making that car crash of a song a single at all is a war crime in itself.

Nonetheless, My Best Friend Is You is, for the most part, a worthy follow-up to Made of Bricks. There’s enough here that is redolent of her debut while there is also a patent desire on her part to play with her musical output and see just what she is capable of. Such an ambitious streak is laudable in someone who is still only 22, and it certainly bodes well for the future.

- Sebastian Clare