Kate Nash

Along with Lily Allen, whose career also started in the mid-'00s on MySpace (prompting an early bout of mutual admiration between the budding stars), Dublin-born Kate Nash debuted with an album — 2007's Made of Bricks — that offered a candid, catchy brand of modern kitchen-sinkiness, delivered in a carefully annunciated accent that spoke as much to her stage school training as it did her formative years in North-West London: her first big hit, "Foundations," stripped away the veneer from a desperate, failing relationship while showcasing an intuitive mastery of pop melody, and she followed it with the slightly quirkier "Mouthwash." Second album My Best Friend Is You (2010) marked a progression by leaps and bounds: produced by former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, it delivered the excellent "Do-Wah-Doo" (which, like "Kiss That Grrrl," was inspired by classic '60s girl groups), fuzzed up rocker "I've Got a Secret" and the electrifying "I Just Love You More."