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Album reviews Music

Best Coast

Best Coast – California Nights

Best Coast have made a surprisingly long career out of an unchanging musical formula: simple beach pop about trying to find love, being in it happily and unhappily, holding onto it. Other topics: jealousy, cats, boredom, getting high, insomnia.

On third album and major label debut California Nights, singer/lyricist/guitarist Bethany Cosentino sings, “I stay high all the time / just to get by,” hinting equally at her unhappiness and lack of desire to deal with it. Discontent is a large part of the L.A. duo’s aesthetic, and it’s juxtaposed by handclap-punctuated beats, brisk tempos and shimmery string-strumming by Consentino and Bobb Bruno.

Despite exceptionally strong hooks and her fine, assured singing, it’s hard not to feel frustrated by Consentino’s lack of depth and constant use of the most obvious rhymes. The single change-up is that the early lo-fi-ness has disappeared, a tweak that makes Best Coast even less interesting.

Top track: Fading Fast

Best Coast play Yonge-Dundas Square for NXNE on June 20.

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