5/4/12

Best Coast | A Review of The Only Place


Best Coast is the product of a duo who has decided to profess a deep love for their home State of California with a new album The Only Place. Yes as the album cover/band name might lead you to believe the Best Coast have no problem telling the word that the other sunshine state is the best in the union. Actually, the sentiment surrounding California doesn’t last past the first track on the album, The Only Place. However, The Only Place does set a playful tone to start the album off, touting the medical benefits of living near sea and sunshine.  This may infuriate some people who spend a good eight months out of the year under a perpetual sky of grey clouds, filled with sharp spitting rain. But we all know that you need both sunshine and rain in order to grow, don’t we.

The band came out with their first full length album back in 2010 called Crazy for You and featured a song that has touched the lives of many would-be living room musicians playing Rocksmith with the track When I’m With You.  This first album featured more of a distortion heavy garage rock sound which stands quite different from most of the tracks on The Only Place. The new album has great pop hooks and is accompanied at times by an almost country musical flare, though it is at its heart an indie rock album. The lead singer Bethany Cosentino’s voice, as with most very song, is the main attraction on this album. Falling somewhere between Neko Case (New Pornographers) and Tegan/Sara Quin (Tegan and Sara), Cosentino lets loose with a series of short lived ballads and well assembled light rock melodies.  

The album has a number of highlights other than the opening track such as Why I Cry, My life, Better Girl and Up All Night.  The style stays fairly consistent throughout the album, maintaining a tone that will attracted most fans of Best Coast.  

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