Kate Nash + James Blake | Track reviews

“3AM”
Kate Nash

It’s been a wild ride for Kate Nash, the Brit songbird who had a breakout smash several years back with “Foundations.” She’s been a bit of a shape shifter in the years since. Is she an indie-pop singer? Girl-group revivalist? Riot Grrrl? It’s hard to tell. With each album she seems to reinvent herself, and now, coming off a relatively high-profile relationship (with a dude from the Cribs), she’s emboldened, if not necessarily empowered. The peppy “3AM” could be seen as a reaction to that split. Riding a punky bass line, it sounds as if she enlisted the Dead Milkmen to be her backup band. And though clearly anxious, she’s not angry as she sprints through the bubbly chorus, chasing “You are the one I think of all the night,” with, “It makes me sick the way we fight / But I want you so bad tonight.” It’s cognitive dissonance for beginners. Maybe Nash decided in the end she’d rather be a teen again.

Kate Nash plays the Empty Bottle Monday 18.