California Nights

Their third album is another impressive set.

On California Nights, they made a risky choice and it pays off in a big way. They come off assured and confident, fully in control of the songs and the sound in a way they never have before.

Granted, they may not be reinventing the wheel, but the duo feel reinvigorated.

The duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno move further toward mastering the [beach music] vibe on their third studio album, California Nights. They do so not by celebrating carefree romps along Pacific Coast Highway, though, but by inverting the Beach Boys' fun-fun-fun narrative.

Thematically, California Nights is perhaps a bit too troubled for a barbecue, but for driving around on a hot summer’s night with the windows rolled down and the stereo turned all the way up, it’s just right.

Like its predecessor, it’s a little too long, but California Nights reaffirms the things that Crazy for You had me believing and The Only Place had me doubting; that Cosentino is a fine songwriter with a keen ear for melody, that Bruno’s guitar work is the perfect foil for her.

In the end, California Nights has a powerful sound, and some of the catchiest songs Cosentino has ever written. It also lacks the celebration of amateurism that made Best Coast so relatable in the first place.

Aside from two or three fillers, this record should be applauded for doing what Consentino does best: writing melodies that stick in your head for days.

The album likely won't convince anyone who's already written off Best Coast, but it's a new high for a band many thought had peaked years ago.

Far from a departure, it's more the continuation of a recurring theme--but one that isn't half bad at all.

Best Coast still have delivered an overall solid album with California Nights, but it remains hard to see how the simplification of their craft and the softening of their image will allow Consentino to attract new listeners without losing the older ones.

It mostly works. "Fine Without You" and "In My Eyes" layer Cosentino's voice into a mighty punk-pop army that sounds a little like the cheerleaders from the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video formed a glee club.

The focused California Nights nevertheless cements Best Coast as one of the few bands capable of straddling the line between intimacy and mass appeal.

Best Coast might not have totally shaken the frivolity on California Nights, but it’s hard to care when it sounds this good.

[Producer] Wally Gagel, who helmed the 2013 EP "Fade Away" and now California Nights, gets it right, cranking up the reverb and multiplying Cosentino's vocals to achieve the Spector-esque wall of sound the duo has been aiming for. [Jun 2015, p.71]

It’s not a perfect ride.... Cosentino’s honeyed vocal is the only true constant. It’s a radiating sunbeam.

It’s an enjoyable and diversionary, if not particularly nutritious, experience.

California Nights peels] away the layers of haze to reveal a mature ambivalence that feels more sincere--and less forced--than anything Cosentino’s done since Crazy for You.... Production flourishes might not appeal to those who fell in love with Best Coast for its bedroom sensibilities, and there’s probably a significant subset of fans who will resent California Nights as the moment the band abandoned indie for good.

California Nights is a professional album: heavy-ish, filled with hooks, somewhere between "fast enough to dance" and "slow enough to sigh to while looking out of a window."

California Nights comes over like a dreamier take on Hole's Celebrity Skin or a souped-up. digitally-produced Go-Go's. [Jun 2015, p.86]

In among the keening college stuff is the languid desert rock of the title track, which gently spirals into a stoned dream as the hot Californian sky burns out the boredom of suburban reality.

While California Nights doesn’t offer a more sophisticated version of Best Coast so much as a blander one, the heightened ambition of the songwriting and production could be an important step forward for the band.

Away from the lyrics, there’s a nagging feeling that, like The Only Place, California Nights isn’t going to blow too many people away with its mostly familiar-feeling content.

Despite exceptionally strong hooks and her fine, assured singing, it's hard not to feel frustrated by Consentino's lack of depth and constant use of the most obvious rhymes.