Having switched up her sound to varying degrees on every album thus far, traversing piano pop, neo-soul, and indie rock along the way,
Kate Nash
turned to vintage Hollywood musicals for inspiration for her fifth studio LP,
9 Sad Symphonies
. It arrives two years after her own musical, Only Gold, had its world premiere off-Broadway. As the title implies, it's the melancholiest-sounding album yet from the typically irreverent Brit, who draws on personal heartbreak, self-examination and -motivation, and a downward-turning world view for its subject matter. Rest assured, songs including the opening "Millions of Heartbeats" make clear that
Nash
hasn't lost her impudent flair; however, by the end of the record, any cheekiness is easily outweighed by disarming earnestness. A couplet like "Everything you feel can just come undone/And the media supports all the far-right scum" offers a little bit of both in the opener, which ends with an encouraging "I guess we have to try." Meanwhile, its wistful, driving piano and yearning vocal melody play like a Broadway "I want song," as lyrics look up to the moon and stars above "millions and millions of heartbeats." The heavy-hearted reflection continues on songs with titles like "Abandoned," "Misery" ("It's out to get you"), and "These Feelings," a bubbly-ish tune with plucked strings and skittering drums that are juxtaposed with lyrics searching for purpose and understanding. On the more self-assured side is "My Bile," a lively, chorus-accompanied acoustic song about knowing one's limitations when it comes to expectations and boundaries. An album with multiple references to being in one's thirties,
ends on track ten, the playful and folky "Vampyre," which passes along the hard-won wisdom, "Sometimes you gotta¿let the demons from your past explode into the sun." ~ Marcy Donelson