Preview: Kate Nash

Chirpy, cheery and perhaps even a bit chavvy, Kate Nash waltzes back into Edinburgh for the inaugural Edge Festival, bringing her unique brand of mockney monologue-pop to the Corn Exchange on Monday, August 25th.

After the public decline of Lilly Allen (cf. The Lilly Allen Show, The Sun's Bizarre column), Kate Nash has become the acceptable face of the faux-chav underbelly of successful DIY popsters, peddling her childish, pithy rhymes to a backdrop of bouncy, upbeat piano.

In 2005 Nash was handing out flyers at the Fringe; three years later she returns as one of the headline acts at this years Edge Festival. She crafts songs of genuine credibility, her penchant for exploring the idiosyncratic intricacies of Britain's yoof culcha coupled with her gaudy, mock-cockney delivery, ensures that, despite the obvious elocutionary parallels with Allen, Nash stands out as an artist of youthful idiosyncrasy in her own right.

The wit here is certainly offbeat, highlighted by Nash's 'am i bovvered?' lyrical nuances and seemingly immature song titles: 'Dickhead' and 'Shit Song' being obvious examples. Kate Nash seems to possess a frustrating ability to confound and satisfy in equal measure, her conversational material veers from eloquent to infantile almost instantly, never better exemplified than on 'Birds', where Nash announces “Birds can fly so high/ Or they can shit on your head.”

However, her number one album, Made of Bricks, is crammed full of upbeat piano-pop; infectious, addictive and melodic, while Nash's lyrics embrace the anti-folk ideology to its extremes; mischievously tongue-in-cheek, devilishly catchy, and satisfyingly unpretentious. As Nash subconsciously wails on 'Pumpkin Soup': "that is all i know!", surely we can all agree she has found her forte.

Kate Nash plays the Corn Exchange on Monday 25th August. Tickets £17.