Crazy For You is the first album from Los Angeles rock duo, Best Coast. It was released on July 27th of 2010, and was a success for the group. The band has currently been on hiatus since 2023, but the two members of the group, Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno, put out a lot of solid music in the four albums that they’ve released and I hope eventually, they reunite. Cosentino is the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, and pianist, while Bruno is the lead guitarist, bassist, drummer, and handles much of the production. They’ve been classified as many genres, but for this album specifically they mostly fall under the genres of surf music and indie rock. Now that this album is nearly 15 years old, how does it hold up today?

    We open up the record with the reverb-drenched guitars of the track “Boyfriend.” It’s a song that features Cosentino lamenting about how much she hates being in the friend zone. The lyrics are pretty straightforward, but the vibes of this track probably make it the best track on the album for me. It’s a song that makes me think of the beach, and the summer, and my teenage years, because during that time I loved this song, and it got me into the duo. “Crazy for You,” and “The End,” are two other examples of some solid love-sick summer anthems, as a lot of the record is mainly centered around the joy and melancholy that comes with dynamics of relationships. The sound of the album is incredibly consistent as it really feels like it’s reviving the surf genre, which was popularized in the late 50s and early 60s by artists like The Beach Boys and Dick Dale. However, Best Coast’s take on the genre adds a fresh coat of paint to it. “Summer Mood,” has one of my favorite choruses on the album, second to “Boyfriend.” “Our Deal,” is a solid track that talks about a dynamic that isn’t going to work, because the guy she’s interested in won’t be honest about how he feels about her. Something I’ve noticed about this album is that most of the tracks don’t even crack the three minute mark, some even being less than 2 minutes long. The production and instrumentation of this record is not very complex, as the guitar riffs aren’t super crazy, opting for a lot of major chord progressions. Lyrically, the album is pretty much all romance themed, which isn’t a bad thing, but a little bit of topical diversity wouldn’t be bad either. Some other tracks I really enjoyed were “Goodbye,” and “When I’m With You.” A track that I don’t think is bad, but just very weak in terms of the rest of the album, is “Happy.” It feels very repetitive and bare bones, and honestly I just feel like it didn’t need to be on the album. I’m also not really a fan of “Each and Everyday.”

   I enjoyed this record, but I do feel that structurally and thematically the album kinda feels very same-y and oftentimes repetitive. The songwriting is entirely about love, which isn’t a bad thing, but some of the tracks just come off as identical. That’s really my only issue with this album, as I love the production, guitar riffs, and Cosentino’s vocals. I just like the sound they went for on this album as a whole. It’s a great mix of surf, indie rock, and garage rock, I just feel like they could’ve tried to diversify the album a little bit more, as lyrically it’s kind of disappointing. Still, a solid first album from two very talented individuals. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Favorite Tracks: “Boyfriend,” “Crazy for You,” “The End,” “Summer Mood,” “Our Deal,” “When I’m With You.”

Least Favorite Tracks: “Happy,” “Each and Everyday,”

Listen: https://youtu.be/Uqphb_WM1rM?si=WuZ1sqAYK2bAlHu9

Genres: Indie Rock/Surf/Indie Pop