Best Coast album features mix of romantic vocals and cynicism

88.1 WKNC's Pick of the Week 8/27
By Michael Jones, WKNC DJ

Every once in a while you stumble across a band that perfectly defines a specific type of music, and with Best Coast’s debut Crazy For You, they prove that they are one of those bands.

Best Coast has debuted with a stellar entry into a surfer rock genre that has seemed to dominate much of the indie rock music scene over the past year. The band has gone so far to describe their sound as a girl lying on the beach in the 1990s wearing a bathing suit from the 50s.

Best Coast is the musical collaboration between vocalist Bethany Cosentino, multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno and their touring drummer Ali Koehler. Coming out of Los Angeles, California, Best Coast has produced immense hype, recently being named the best new band of 2010 by the British publication NME, and are also set to play at this year’s Hopscotch Music Festival in downtown Raleigh this September.

The band kicks off their album just as you might expect. The starry-eyed, love-longing vocals of Cosentino come out in their best fashion with the track Boyfriend. Cosentino emphasizes her desire for a man and her contempt for another woman vying for his attention. “If I could only get her out of the picture / Then he would know how much I want him,” demonstrates her love for this guy she desires to return her love. Finally, toward the end of the fantastic track, Cosentino dives into some of the more dreamy elements of Best Coast when she thinks up a series of romantic and beautiful activities they would share.

The entire album is not compiled solely of sweet, romantic songs. The title track Crazy For You demonstrates Cosentino's push-pull tendencies toward her significant other when she delivers the lyrics, “I want to hit you then I kiss you / Want to kill you then I miss you.” Bordering on sentiments that reflect both insecurity and defiance, she is consistently second-guessing herself.

Best Coast is able to capitalize on their marijuana-influenced, beach pop tunes with their track The End. This slick entry into the album shows the appearance of being laid-back -- yet somehow worried -- about the relationships that Cosentino describes throughout the album.

Each track appears to be a unique entry into a specific feeling that the Best Coast is getting across in a way that creates diversity and breeds excellence. Songs like Goodbye demonstrate the band's ability to dip into the harshest areas of cynicism, while Bratty B shows that she can change in order to be with her loved one once again.

As the album comes to a close, Best Coast delivers track after track that show Cosentino second-guessing and coming to frustrating conclusions about wanting to be with this mystery man. However, she seems to acknowledge forces outside of her control are preventing them from being together.

At the end of the day, Best Coast’s Crazy For You provides a stand-out entry into a surfer rock genre that may seem oversaturated to some, and if hitting the top 40 for an independent band’s debut record proves anything, it is that they have the potential to be one of the next big names in pop.

88.1 WKNC Pick of the Week is published in every Friday in the print edition of Technician, as well as online at technicianonline.com and wknc.org.