from I has cheeseburger, cheeseburger network
Best Coast’s full-length debut — Crazy For You — was released yesterday, July 27, on the Mexican Summer label. Living up to the buzz and hype surrounding the band’s singles, the Los Angeles-based trio have indelibly left a sunny-warm, sticky-sweet mark on today’s music scene.

Singer/songwriter Bethany Cosentino (formerly of Pocahaunted) spends every second of the quick-hitter album (run time is just over 33 minutes) painting a portrait of stoned romanticism. Whether or not  the lyrics are a derivative of the romance between Cosentino and surf punk rocker Nathan Williams (Wavves), the pure-heartedness and passion of a summer fling are laden in each track.

The first track, Boyfriend, encapsulates all the best qualities of Best Coast’s fuzzy, hazy brand of beach pop music. The desperation and hopeless longing that compose this song’s lyrics (and most of the album’s) harken back to the time of J. Frank Wilson and The Cavaliers (Last Kiss) when less-than-happy subject matter could still be incorporated in upbeat music.

Cosentino wears you down with her lyrics about young love and unrequited adoration, but the music remains poppy, optimistic and mostly enjoyable. It’s like one’s love for the beach and the ocean combining to overcome a hatred for sand. Realistically, the album’s short run time doesn’t afford the opportunity to tire of the straightforward and sappy lyrics.

If the duration of the album is a flaw, it’s also a strong suit. The repetitive lyrics and treble-heavy guitar can begin to blur and make songs indistinct from one another. Building upon the summer imagery, the album’s brevity is akin to getting out of the sun just in time to develop a tan and not a sunburn.

Nonetheless, Crazy For You is more than a seasonal novelty and will outlive the summer months. Best Coast are advancing a genre that’s attracting attention from the mainstreamers. With that said, this reviewer finds Boyfriend and the album’s bonus track, When I’m With You, to be the strongest and most likely candidates for repeated listening.