Kate Nash has already made waves in her native U.K, and with the Jan. 8 release of her debut album “Made of Bricks” in the U.S., she is making quite a splash across the pond, too.

The 20-year-old, auburn-haired, vintage-dress wearing singer-songwriter sounds like a cross between two fellow UK musicians, Lily Allen and rapper-hip-hop artist The Streets. Nash plays jumpy chords on the piano as she generally sings but sometimes speaks her quirky, often ironic, stream-of-conscious lyrics across indie-pop beats.

The girl is cute beyond belief and just as quirky as her music: a typical Nash outfit includes a big butterfly belt, a floral thrift dress, red tights and high colorful pumps. She is the girl next door meets the indie rocker, and so far she is appealing to both crowds. Her single “Foundations” reached the #2 spot on the UK charts, while her debut album reached the #1 spot. The song made it to #39 on the U.S. Billboard 200.

Her stats are pretty good, especially since she has burst onto the indie music scene in the last few months from seemingly nowhere. After getting rejected from theater school, she fell down a flight of stairs, broke her foot, and decided to write songs during her recovery. After her first paid music gig, she said she never considered another job again.

In a musical rags to riches story, Nash used GarageBand to record herself singing and playing the guitar and piano. She uploaded her songs onto MySpace, and started playing at larger venues as word spread about the young singer from Harrow, England. Ere long, Lily Allen herself listed Nash in her top eight on MySpace, pushing Nash fully into the limelight of the indie-pop scene.

Like Allen, to whom Nash is inevitably compared, Nash is pop with a bite — every song on “Made of Bricks” is labeled explicit. While some of her profanity adds to her story-telling lyrics and slang-filled urban appeal, at times it makes her sound, well, 20 years old. On the slow, jazz-infused track, “Dickhead,” three-fourths of lyrics are the repeated lines, “Stop being a dickhead / Why you being a dickhead for? / You’re just f***ing up situations.”

Similarly, in “Birds,” a compelling modern ballad about two young lovers reuniting at a train station, Nash articulates one of the lover’s feelings in the strangest chorus on the CD: “Birds can fly so high and they can shit on your head / Yeah they can almost fly into your eye and make you feel scared / But when you look at them and you see they’re beautiful, / That’s how I feel about you.” I am not sure whether it is really sweet, or just laughable and awkward. Or is that how love’s supposed to be?

On other tracks, Nash’s lyrics are endearingly specific and eccentric. On “Merry Happy,” which features Nash’s signature staccato piano and talking-singing, Nash sings, “Dancing at discos, eating cheese on toast / Yeah, you make me merry make me very, very happy but you obviously, / you didn’t want to stick around.” The poppy, boppy chorus of “do do da”s is catchy and wonderfully saccharine for the wholly bitter song about a jilted lover who proclaims in the last verse that she “can’t take back those hours / but I won’t regret ‘cause you can grow flowers / from where dirt used to be.”

Nash’s two singles, “Foundations” and “Mouthwash,” have perhaps the most pop appeal on the album. Nash laments a beleaguered relationship on “Foundations” which starts with simple, alternating piano chords, and is soon joined by fast-paced drums and guitar. The chorus is addictively catchy, featuring a distinctive synth overlay, piano riffs and Nash’s smart consideration of her conflicted feelings on her relationship: “My fingertips are holding onto the cracks in our foundations / And I know that I should let go, but I can’t.”

“Mouthwash” adds instruments one by one, until the song builds to a full, Coldplay-esque finish. The lyrics start confidently, with “yes I’ll still here and this is my mind / and although you try to infringe / you cannot confine,” but take a turn for the random in the chorus where Nash sings, “And I use mouthwash / Sometimes I floss / I’ve got family and I drink cups of tea / I’ve got nostalgic pavements / I’ve got familiar faces.”

Nash’s most mature, and calmest, track is “Nicest Thing,” where Nash sings in low yearning tones about longing to be loved. Nash’s vocals are rife with feeling as a violins swells between the hushed notes of a guitar and bass. The lyrics are arguably also the most well-considered, lacking the scattered unpredictability present in some of Nash’s other songs. “Nicest Things,” is more collected and focused — one of those quieter songs that will never receive radio air-time but is a surprise gem on the album.

From pop, to jazz, to indie-rock, Nash is a versatile, talented singer-song-writer, who at her best pairs poignant relationship observations with witty, realistic truths of life’s absurdities. At her worst, she swears like sailor and speaks in non sequitors over fast-paced drums and a choppy piano.

I expect a lot because her good stuff is damn good.

But give her a few years, hell, give her 10 — the girl has got the time. With some honed song-writing and more exploration of her already unique sound, I think her welcoming in the U.S. will be even warmer the next time around.

Download: “Foundations,” “Mouthwash,” “Nicest Things”