Best Coast

Having previewed some new material at their (relatively) recent El Rey gig, yours-truly was eagerly looking forward to Best Coast's new album, "Fade Away". However, the album seems to have received a number of somewhat mixed reviews from those who actually get paid for writing stuff like this. But seeing that it was available on Amazon for only $3.99 (or only $0.57 a song for the seven track EP or mini-album...) - which is a bit of a bargain - it would have been almost criminal not to.

But would it be a case of buy in haste and repent at leisure? Read on...

The first thing to say is that from the moment that the trademark lo-fi fuzzed-up guitar is cranked up and Bethany Cosentino's vocals kick-in during the opening bars of "This Lonely Morning", you just know this is a Best Coast album. All those tell-take signs are there in spades. Instrumentally, Bobb Bruno's fingerprints are everywhere to be heard - the muddied, distorted guitar with just that right amount of feedback, the muffled back-beat - but it's in the vocal department that things start to leap-out at you. Has Bethany's voice ever sound this right?

And it's the songwriting department that makes this album stand-out from the two earlier works. Whereas it could be argued that Best Coast's songs always seem to revolve around the same themes (you know, wondering as to whether there really is more to life, the never ending cycle of boy and cat troubles, all the while feeling oh-so slightly guilty about writing an up-beat indie-pop song that could quite easily be turned into a commercial for the L.A. tourism industry...) and Cosentino's lyrics always come across as heart-felt, with this album they feel as if they are almost autobiographical - and in doing so, there appears to be sub-conscious steps towards a darker sound. "Fade away" and "I don't know" are the two stand-out examples of this - the latter an updated heart-wrenching Country song with Cosentino absolutely nailing the vocals - and while "who have I become" and "Fear of my identity" revisit those familiar Best Coast themes about the pains of being insecure in love, there's a new found maturity, confidence and sophistication unheard on either of their previous albums.

Fade Away sees Best Coast at a crossroads, looking back in the rear view mirror from where they've come, forward to roads yet to be traveled. And it is with this moment of trepidation that Best Coast have made their best album to date...

Take the album for a test spin (and earn the band $.0001 in royalties!) and decide for yourself...



Best Coast Website
"Fade Away" (Amazon), (iTunes), (7Digital)