No artist feels as Californian as Best Coast. Growing up in the Midwest, I always pictured sandy California beaches and palm trees when I listened to the lyrics of front-runner Bethany Cosentino. In the below freezing winters, nothing made me feel as warm and relaxed as the band's 2010 debut, “Crazy For You.” The distorted vocals, grungy guitars, trashy drums and carefree melodies always made me wish I was cruising down Pacific Coast Highway on a sunny day.
CLASSIC CALIFORNIA HIPSTER BAND
Then a few years later came the follow up album, “The Only Place.” I couldn’t help but notice that every single thing I liked about “Crazy For You” was missing. Not only did the songwriting quality decrease tremendously, but the production quality felt completely out of place. I was disappointed to say the least. One year later, we have “Fade Away,” a seven-track EP that would be most easily described as smashing “Crazy For You” and “The Only Place” together as hard as possible, hoping for the best.
Right off the bat, things feel a little more at home with the opening track, “This Lonely Morning.” The reverb is turned up on the vocals, the lyrics are as simple as can be and the guitar melody has all the California vibes you could ask for. Cosentino is no longer stuck in her bipolar, “life is hard” rut, and she’s back to singing about what it feels like to be getting older. The song “Fear Of My Identity” seems to sum up her thoughts blatantly as she sings, “And life is short, but so am I / What does it matter anyway.”
“I Wanna Know” tries to follow suit with the throwback sound but doesn’t ever quite reach the level you’d want or expect it to. While I’ve always enjoyed the repetitiveness and simple structure of her music, Cosentino comes off as unmotivated and lazy. It’s as if she’s trying to copy her old brand, but completely forgot how to actually create it.
"MASHUP" OF FIRST TWO ALBUMS
That being said, the title-track, “Fade Away” is a much needed highlight. The slow ballad feels like it was one of the only reasons this album was even made. The drums stick to the ride cymbal, the guitars shred as hard as you could hope for, and the simple, repetitive melodies finally feel genuine. While it’s not the upbeat jam that Best Coast fans deserve, it’s the one they need right now.
The final track, “I Don’t Know How,” doesn’t even sound like Best Coast — unless Best Coast is now a country rock band. While some of her previous tunes have had “slight country influences,” this one throws away the “slight” and “influences” and leaves the “country” in bold caps.
When I mentioned above that “Fade Away” is essentially a mashup of Best Coast’s first two albums, I was not saying that in a positive way. I’m happy that Cosentino attempted to go back to her roots on this EP, but it seems as though she based the album around two solid tracks and nothing else. While most of the songs are not awful by any means, they sound completely unmotivated and confused. It’s a halfhearted attempt at copying, without actually respecting, what people loved about the original.
