Bethany Cosentino formerly of Pocahaunted is back with Best Coast, now with former Vivian Girls drummer Ali Koehler and former babysitter Bobb Bruno. The trio's latest album takes the shape of Crazy For You, wherein Miss Cosentino sings of boys, weed, summer and boys some more.
This first official album for Best Coast is quite a step up in production from their earlier EPs, with no more meowing from Snacks the Cat in the background; it's a cleaner, fuller, more rounded sound. That is not to say that Snacks (Cosentino's cat) hasn't had any input into the album, indeed rumours are rife that he chose the tracklist which, apparently, is why "Sun Was High (So Was I)" was left off the debut* despite being one of the most popular single releases. Controversial indeed. If you're wondering why I keep mentioning this cat it's because it's become something of a sensation, it has its own twitter and is on the cover of two popular albums, Crazy For You and King Of The Beach (Wavves [as if you didn't already know]). In fact Cosentino has increasingly raised her internet status from arguments with blogs (namely Hipster Runoff) and her funny tweets about always wanting massive bags of weed, a thing which plays no small part in this album. On top of all this she has many a young gentleman who fancies her but as is always the way and as you probably know she's going out with Nathan Wavves.
Now as for the actual music on the album, it's repetitive but it's good. I don't think it would be unfair to say that a lot of the songs are similar in style, it's consistent scuzzed-up surf pop but importantly it's consistently good. From the opener of "Boyfriend" wherein Cosentino wishes she could go out with a fella who already has a girlfriend who is "prettier and skinnier" to the brilliant "When I'm With You", the album never really slips up. It maintains great girl group-style vocal harmonies, simple and straightforward lyrics (even the repetition of "I'm Happy" over and over garners a certain credibility with the delivery) and in fact there's also some nice humour involved as she sings, "I wish my cat could talk" in the song "Goodbye".
At its best there are reminiscences of Ramones and at worst it can be a tad boring like on "Summer Mood". Though as a whole Best Coast have come up with a really quite decent album and this is entirely due to the fact that they've kept it short, the whole album is barely over half an hour. The conciseness keeps it fresh, as does the occasional change of pace like on the slightly darker sounding and slower "Honey". For me it's an all round good album, not necessarily something to listen to over and over again but certain tracks like the bonus "When I'm With You" are particularly good and could be listened to repeatedly.
[Best Coast Myspace]
[Buy Crazy For You from Mexican Summer]
*It should be noted the actual reason was because of course Best Coast only wanted to put new songs on their album and not rehash old singles. I still prefer the cat story.
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