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Album Reviews
Album Review: Best Coast – Crazy For You (Wichita)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 3 August 2010
Dropping out of college never proved so lucrative. In the summer of 2009, Best Coast vocalist Bethany Cosentino moved back from New York (where she left college) to Los Angeles and began sending songs to her now musical partner, Bobb Bruno. After some initial bedroom recordings the duo released a number of seven-inch singles on a few small American labels, receiving an incredible amount of praise from fans and blogs alike. With debut album ‘Crazy For You’, Cosentino wanted to record entirely new tracks (though some were penned even before the start of Best Coast), meaning, of course, that it leaves off previous ‘hits’, such as ‘When I’m With You’ and ‘Each And Every Day’.
The result is a dreamy affair, fleshed out by Cosentino’s sun-drenched vocals which, though treated with heavy amounts of reverb, still allow her vibrant personality to soak through. Coupled with this is the now standard reverb rich guitar tone that throws it all into a distant haze, perfect then for creating a nostalgia driven album that not only harks back to the days of The Beach Boys surf-pop but also to her childhood and the shoegaze/grunge-era of the early nineties.
The songwriting on display is remarkable and for those of us who have been following the duo from their early days, it’s not a surprise to see the album work so effectively. The songs aren’t challenging and there are few, if any, real tempo or rhythm changes, yet somehow the quality of the songwriting wrestles the listener (or rather languidly taps the listener’s shoulder) to take full stock of them and listen attentively.
While this is overall a nostalgic surf-pop summer album, it will be interesting to see where Best Coast go next, as songs like ‘Honey’ and ‘I Want You’ express something much darker and much more Nirvana-esque. SJS
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