(Photo Credit - Eddie Chacon)
Advance Review - Best Coast: Always Tomorrow (February 21, 2020)
When contemplating the influences of Best Coast, I always jump to Fleetwood Mac, Indigo Girls, and Avril Lavigne (Before the conspiracy that she had died and was replaced by a double). When it’s really pondered upon, the point of origin among the many groups of
influences changes among album and feeling. While having the continuity of noisy low-fi pop from the 50’s and 60’s, many modern music acts have been swayers of sound for front chick and founder, Bethany Cosentino and instrumentalist Bobby Bruno. The Band’s second album, The Only Place, is a mashing of sound from traditional country music such as Patsy’s Cline and Loretta and the other end of spectrum, Drake’s Take Care. Mazzy Star is a big influence of the Band’s 2013 EP Fade Away, as well as soon to be released, Always Tomorrow; Out February 21st, 2020.
While it may be hard to pinpoint exactly the scripture Best Coasts forges their own way musical journey from, the emotion behind it is not. Bethany Consentino has always been open about her struggles with depression, anxiety and intrications with drugs and alcohol. It’s refreshing, honestly. She doesn’t gloat or look for pity, she only provides transparency for her audience. When playing at Lallapalooza in 2011, Consentino started their set by flipping off the crowd and exclaiming “Fuck you we’re Best Coast”. On an unprompted explication of the event, Consentino said:
“I didn’t do that because I was some badass Joan Jett rock star. I did that because I was deeply miserable and deeply insecure about what you thought of me so I wanted you to see me as someone who didn’t give a fuck.”
I don’t know about you guys, but I like a little vulnerability with my melancholy guitar riffs.
Always Tomorrow is the victory cry for Cosentino. The most upbeat of their discography, It seems that party girl turned fan confidant has found equilibrium in herself. It’s most apparent in the track, “Master of My Own Mind”, right at the very crescendo of the album. While Cosentino said the album is about “leaving the darkness for the light”, the most important thing to me as an avid Best Coast fan is her statement that the album is about “fixing broken patterns”. We are all creatures of habit and as I’ve become habitually inclined to listened to best coast, I’ve grown past some of brokenness and stopped saying fuck you to my peers but I merely shrugged my shoulders.
I give this album a 4 out of 5, only because I know the extra star would make our dearest Bethany Cosentino laugh in my face.
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