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Best Coast’s ‘This Lonely Morning’ Wakes, Bakes, Rises, Shines

Best Coast, "This Lonely Morning," 'Fade Away,' stream

Best Coast’s trajectory is clear. Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno made it obvious on their 2010 debut album, Crazy for You, that simple melodies, bluntly contemporary yearning, and medicinal haze were what they’d be bringing to the beach with them. Last year’s Essential The Only Place differed mainly in its Jon Brion-produced clarity.

“This Lonely Morning,” the latest from Best Coast’s October 22 mini-album Fade Away, is Best Coast to the max: Cosentino waits for a call, her mind is hazy, and the song bops along with surf-flecked pop-punk efficiency. She even told Rolling Stone, “I wrote that song in literally five minutes, sitting in bed one morning, bored.” As on previously shared, tempo-shifting, “I Don’t Know How,” Cosentino’s country-strong voice continues to improve, and this song once again sounds bigger and more polished than previous Best Coast.

What Cosentino aims for here, much like what her onetime SPIN cover co-star Wavves targeted on this year’s Afraid of Heights, is a tricky balance: How do you bring along old fans when your new songs are basically the same but shinier? How do you attract fresh folks with glossier takes on your previous ideas when new Los Angeles avatars are coming along every day? These are the kinds of questions that might keep Cosentino baked and fretting. And, lucky for us, maybe less so for her, that’s what will keep people coming back to her for more, on lonely mornings or, y’know, whenever.

Listen over at RS.