Albums of 2010: #9: Crazy For You

#9: 'Crazy For You' by Best Coast

This year I have had an inner battle over whether I would prefer the musical life of the West Coast Californian Haze or the Inner City New York Brooklyn lifestyle (more on this later in the countdown), but Best Coast, with a big dollop of lead singer Bethany Cosentino, gave me a giant push towards the Beach Boys notion of living. Lead singer Bethany has a cat famous on Twitter and was previously in the wondrous but odd Pocahaunted...so things were bound to get interesting with a debut record from the beach rock trio known as Best Coast.

They crafted a sound that went back in time and invented 1950s grunge, taking elements of surf rock and fusing them with modern indie pop and lo-fi recording techniques. 'Crazy For You' is a record that combines simple and proven ideas and stirs them in a bucket of sunshine and sentiment. Opening track 'Boyfriend' bursts into life with a surf rock drumbeat before a tale of distant attraction pines forth, setting a sensitive sensibility for the rest of the record. Everything rattles with raw passion and power, from the one-two punch of 'Summer Mood' right on through to the manic bop and pop of 'Each & Everyday'.

The majority of the content in the depths and doorways of Best Coast's musical mind consists of melancholy memories and lustful longing, aching, pining and clawing its way towards 'When I'm With You', a closing track that crawls through droning guitars and melodious musings on some kind of joyful unification, AT LAST. Best Coast is a blender full of intelligent easy listening, meandering along in a brisk half an hour, like the cool kid in sunglasses that shuffles around on their own time. It's effortless yet exciting and here's hoping it all back just in time for the sunshiny, shimmering summer of 2011...