Crazy For You, the debut album by lo-fi surf-popsters Best Coast, is a 13-song collection with the coolness of an ocean breeze on an August day.
With only one song eclipsing the three-minute mark (at a tidy 3:01), Crazy For You zips by, never once asking the listener to think too hard or tangle with complicated arrangements. Instead, Best Coast multi-instrumentalist Bobb Bruno fills tracks with driving guitar and fuzzy beats while lead singer Bethany Cosentino wishes “her cat could talk,” is “always waiting by the phone,” and dreams “he was my boyfriend.”
This is not to say the album is all a vacuous series of lovelorn lyrics. The aforementioned “Boyfriend,” the album’s lead single, may harp on how she wishes he was her guy, but Cosentino later laments that the other girl is indeed prettier, skinnier, and has a college degree. It’s not often that a song of yearning admits the other woman may be the better choice. “Summer Mood,” “Happy,” “Each and Every Day” and “When I’m With You” are all great songs despite predictable (yet infectious) tempos.
Does it become repetitive? Sure. Have you heard it all before? Yep. But none of this keeps you from enjoying what’s here. It’s a carefree compilation of one sunny single after another.
What a welcome concept!
