Review: Kate Nash, U2

Review: Kate Nash, U2

Kate Nash 'Made of Bricks': Aidin Vaziri | Like Lily Allen, British songbird Kate Nash has a talent for making ordinary life seem, well, even more ordinary. Consider the lyrics to her recent hit "Mouthwash": "And I use mouthwash/ Sometimes I floss/ I got a family/ And I drink cups of tea." Still, that's an improvement over the kicker to "We Get On": "Saturday night, I watched Channel 5/I particularly like 'C.S.I.' " Why should you care? Because the cute-as-a-button 20-year-old has got a fantastic accent and uses it with a simple concoction of cheap pianos and homespun beats to turn out songs that are deceptively addictive. The best on her debut album is "Foundations," a teenage relationship drama that begins with Nash blasting her boyfriend for picking on her faults. Let's just say you wouldn't want to date her, but spending the night with her music isn't bad.

U2 'The Joshua Tree': Aidin Vaziri | Paying $60 for an album already embedded in your DNA might seem excessive, but what price to pay for previously unearthed photos of Bono's mullet? That's not all that's included with this deluxe edition of U2's landmark 1987 album, "The Joshua Tree." As hard as it is to justify listening to songs such as "Where the Streets Have No Name" and "With or Without You" one more time, it's worth revisiting the group's delicate angst before it became unavoidable. Even most the B-sides on the bonus disc ("Spanish Eyes," "Silver and Gold") are as familiar as the Edge's dusty leather hat - a testament to the magnificent creative powers at work here. The DVD is pretty much a throwaway live recording filmed at the Hippodrome de Vincennes in Paris on July 4, 1987, that's likely to make you cringe. But that's irrelevant. Toss out the grating "Bullet the Blue Sky," and this is genius in a box.