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Still a great album. Is the second album really bad?

http://hipsterrunoff.com/altreport/2012/03/new-best-coast-song-sounds-parody-best-coast-song.html

Tripe.

Is about as eloquent as I can get on the subject

I really thought her early 7" were amazing her lp on Mex summer was decent but this new song is pretty shitty

If so am gutted, i fucking loved the first album. Used to sing along to it in the shower and everything.
Bummer :(

Seems the same as first album. All songs very similar and boring and get old pretty quick. Don't see any difference with this one.

When she got rid of the fuzz and rawness of her early singles, for me her first lp was a bit of a let down to pollished and predictable nothing really stood out,

Don't be all haterzz, I like it loads so far.

DADBONER
it will still be huge for lamestreamers, weak 1st single

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1 month ago

the new single is brilliant. What best coast do, er, best- summer in a song. And surely there's a hint of irony in 'we always have fun'. Isn't this album supposed to be dark or something?

but when someone backs up this claim by saying the 'early stuff' had 'fuzz and rawness' you can't possibly take them seriously

the debut was boring
haven't heard the new one

I mean, the debut was pretty shit but i could see the appeal, shallow thrills. But this... it's beyond awful. I did a review of it for this thing and gave it a score of -9000, which I thought was pretty generous really.

raw and fuzzy are a pretty common and accurate description of best coast's early sound but not of when Im with you onwards, so if someone prefered that whats wrong with them saying that?

loved the early singles, thought the album was good but abit samey (though strong for a debut), so far the new one, the vocals seem abit too loud in the mix ive got a feeling it might be a grower though as I didnt like the first song from it the first time I heard it but now I quite like it.

I can understand people not liking it though, especially fans of her early stuff because this doesnt have any resemblance to those songs

what did brion actually do on this album, doesnt sound like anything new going on

quite enjoyed it, especially the old timey sounding slow numbers

Like, the Initial Friend EP stuff. But without any of the personality or half-interesting lyrics.

Also sounds a bit like it was written with the intention of it accompanying the opening credits of a new, Dawson's Creek / OC type American teen drama.

another would be "... but not very many good songs underneath that fuzz and rawness"

I thought the where the boys are demo was pretty weak, but the california girls demo had some great songs on it (not sure which came first) and all the 7"'s are great too

and even if the lyrics are ironic, it still sounds incredibly anodyne.

Oh well, we'll always have the first album, which still sounds absolutely amazing on a sunny day.

surely you'll give the second album a try rather than dismissing it on the basis of one song (unless you have heard the album and didn't like it in which case I'll shut up now).

just not hugely optimistic for it based on that. You're right of course though, first singles are often misleading.

the whole "we're so chill dude" shtick, the "omg cute cats LOL!!11 :3 :3 :3" shit, the lack of any lyrical focus and instrumentation consisting of little more than guitar chords. We'll be cringing in a few years for sure.

in that way, they're kind of like a modern equivalent to the Vines

but i think that, whilst totally being a cliche and yadda yadda yadda, the early art fag stuff was genuinely good. part of that was yes, fuzzier production but that suited her vibe/aesthetic a lot better than the clean cut stuff, and yes, probably also disguised genuinely great/even good songwriting*, which has since been shown up as fairly weak since.

*apart from When I'm With You, gr8 song. also, the summer than song was everywhere seems like far, far longer than a couple of years ago.

'instrumentation consisting of little more than guitar chords'

you could say the same about numerous well regarded and seminal bands not just the vines

I disagree though, their sound is basic indie pop but with the baritone guitars, spring reverb, 60s sounding drums and girl group backing vocals they gave it a kind of timeless feel that made it their own.

The lyrics are kind of simplistic but a good fit for that sound, and quite focused on an unrequited love theme, not original but a staple of many a band. The whole 'chill' and cats was just her personality, probably hipster runoff responsible for turning it into a shtick.

I think if she stuck with her early sound then that was very of its time, late 00's lofi, but she moved a way from that and made album with a great sound and feel that I think will date pretty well

especially with regards to the instrumentation.

But i really don't think you can defend the "chill" and cats stuff in any way, certainly not as part of her personality, she's clearly been completely influenced by current youth culture, just as some kid today who wears trucker caps and listens to Dinosaur Jr has been. The whole "cats as internet memes/being really funny" stuff was prevalent on 4chan back in 2005 or so, way before it became part of some sort of hipster mainstream.

I guess I never made the link to cat memes, I just assumed, about to make a mass generalisation here, a lot of indie girls really love cats, so she mentioned her cat in one song and put him on the cover, her rise coincided with the rise of twitter so we got to hear alot about her cat which kind of became her thing. I dont think people will be like 'remember 2010 when everyone loved cats on the internet, how dated' more like 'remember that band that really liked cats'.

the chill thing, I think as a Californian stoner that played in psychedelic drone bands their is a good chance that was part of her personaility, chill may have become a trend but that doesnt mean it wasnt real for some

But they are truly one of the worst live bands around

is an aesthetic choice, not an artistic one, And secondly, they've been around a while now, which is the key reason anyone would believe their earlier rawness has 'diminished'.

hope the 2nd album is great too.

I think it is the subject matter that lets it down, the monotony of being in a mid level successful indie band is not very interesting

very fun album. Shame if the follow up is poo.

If the rest of the album is not as good as this, then it's a shame.

"Written for Notion Magazine

A stars-and-stripes collagen plumps the bikini-clad body of Best Coast’s music like a botoxed slab of Blackpool rock. Such lo fi stupidity fills 32 vacuous minutes with headless bambi-crap that’s backward even for the picket-fence pout that surrounds its plastic ‘50s context. Coincidentally ‘The Only Place’ with its titular mention, must be an assimilation of lead singer Bethany Cosentino’s 1950s&60s bedroom memorabilia. Her vultured-twee-chic and submissive lyricism could turn the Brontë sisters into comparative militant feminists (“If I sleep on the floor/will it make you love me more?”) whilst a frilly-girl cupcake romanticism perches upon the proverbial balcony to decry equality in three minute bubblegum bursts (“I want to be a better girl”). It isn’t Shakespearean ivory that creeps up the throat here - it’s a bad Californian suntan. Yawn."

There's more but this sums it up pretty well.

Marnie stern thre the anti feminist criticism at her as well, think its pretty unfair and not a very feminist argument

nobody needs to shoehorn an angle to trash this band. The 'feminist criticism' is well deserved.

But reviews like this make me feel like I should give the new record a chance.

Why exactly?

to something in the real world

and all the time they spent tediously plugging themselves on messages boards

just imagine it

http://eyeonspringfield.tumblr.com/post/11711670227/can-you-imagine-a-world-without-lawyers

completely agree as well.

Terrible, juvenile album equates to an elaborate second album that is just as terrible.

but without anything to hold interest.

who thinks Beach House got rubbish after their debut rather than became great.

I think the first beach house record was great, and everyone since also great, but can't compare to the first just because it just seemed like such a perfecty formed record when I first heard it, im sure if any other albums were their first albums i'd feel the same about them

I love all the other ones, so I'm guessing I should get it!

and it's still good.

#earlystuff