ALBUM REVIEW: Best Coast – Crazy For You

I’m not going to lie, I never really liked Best Coast, or the surf pop, lo-fi thing going on. I had heard “When I’m With You” and frankly I found its catchyness annoying.
I got the album through rough trade, as the album of the month. I definitely take back what ever I’ve said about this genre, this album is amazing, and I am now in love with “When I’m With You”.
First off, its a girl singing about boys, so that is obviously a barrier for a gentlemen such as myself. But the music and lyrics are so catchy and feel right with each other. Now, I’m not going to go into a big rant about how the music industry is sexist, but it definitely is refreshing to here the other side of the story in alternative rock genre.
The album starts with “Boyfriend” which is a awesome intro, with the key line being “I wish you was my boyfriend”, which I can’t help sing along to, despite the obvious connotations I might be giving people. Its a real warm track, you can definitely tell Bethany (vocalist) has put herself into the song, as it definitely doesn’t feel like a “standard love song #298″.
This is echoed in the album, however, this does start to feel a little moany. This might be my hidden sexist side coming out, but the album does feel very teenage girly. Both Nathan and I agree on this, sometime you can have too much teenage angst. This is my only point I don’t like about this album, which could be seen as a good thing, because its a very minor point.
Much like other lo-fi surf pop bands, summer, weed, and love is a predominant theme, Best Coast manage to write about these various subjects but still keep it original.
Tracks like “Honey” take quite a different tone, slightly darker to the others, which is surprising cause the songs about how much she loves this guys she’s with now. Perhaps a sinister love is in the air? I don’t think I really care, the melody in this track is so great, its sung really well, in the way the vocals really fit with the track its self. Not something you can find often. In fact, I would say that most of the tracks on this album have this connection. Also, Best Coast added “When I’m With You” as a bonus track, which is always nice, because now you can enjoy it as part of a collective.

I would definitely go to say this is one of the albums of the year, its got a good vibe to it, not your standard love album. And it was released at an ideal time of the year, making it hopefully the soundtrack to your summer. My opinion on these guys and the genre has changed greatly.
If anything is to be learnt from this album it is, that if you have a girlfriend and she writes an album like this, you should definitely be thinking about whether you are in it for the long haul.
Here’s one of the tracks of the Bonus EP that was sent with the album.

Best Coast – Wish He Was You

Lewi