Best Coast
California Nights
Harvest
Bethany Cosentino, the singer-songwriter half of Best Coast—multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno is her longtime collaborator—excels at existential distress encased in a bright candy shell. California Nights, the duo’s fine third album, is a delicious brew of big pop melodies, yearning vocals that wouldn’t be out of place in an old-fashioned girl group, and densely textured wall-of-sound production. While Cosentino’s lyrics are often disarmingly simple and direct, along the lines of “I love you” and “I miss you,” collectively they can hint at deranged obsession, as if a crazed romantic poet had picked up an electric guitar and started a band. Having once sung “Who Have I Become?” she continues her soul-searching ways here on the soaring “So Unaware,” asking, “What is life/What is love/What’s the meaning of it all?/Do I even care?/Or is it just that I am so unaware?” Add equally restless tunes like “When Will I Change?” and “Sleep Won’t Ever Come,” and you’ve got the most enticing combination of angst and beat to be found anywhere.
