eMusic Review
Bethany Cosentino moved to New York to become a writer and boomeranged back to her native Los Angeles to pen woozy dream-pop that couldn't sound more quintessentially and brilliantly California. On Best Coast's full-length debut, Crazy for You, Cosentino and industrious L.A. indie rocker Bobb Bruno mix reverb-drowned surf guitar with hip-swiveling '60s shoop and the lo-fi girl-rock of '90s bands like That Dog. It's primo beach-blanket bop with a loveable quaint streak: more Annette Funicello than the Situation.
Like gender-flopped Beach Boys songs, the 13 lazily gorgeous tracks on Crazy for You are obsessed with boys. But love isn't idealized in Cosentino's universe — it makes her sleepy ("Crazy for You"), mentally disheveled ("Goodbye"), and apologetic ("I'm sorry I lost your favorite T-shirt, I'll buy you a new one, a better one" she sings in her flatly clean, Liz Phair-like croon on "Bratty B"). Her real romance is with that essential Cali obsession — the sun — but even that relationship falls a bit far of perfection. "There's something about the summer," she repeatedly croons on "Summer Mood" as Bruno plucks out a few breezy chords, "that makes me moody."
