Best Coast: California Nights ALBUM REVIEW

I did a review of the last Best Coast EP last year, it wasn't a serious review by any stretch of the imagination, but I still gave it a score to reflect my actual feelings on the project. That middle of the road score sums up my feelings on Best Coast in general, and on their latest LP, California Nights, the duo do absolutely nothing to change that. In fact, this album actually made me kind of loath this group's sunny, dumbed down version of rock, something I wasn't expecting since I'm usually able to find at least some fun with this kind of music.

First, I'm going to point out the things I like about this album... the track "Feeling Ok" is decent.
That's it. That is where my enjoyment of this album begins and ends because by the end of this song I feel like I've heard enough. The shallow and kind of asinine lyrics, predictable reverb-laden instrumentals and mopey, yet sunny attitude are just too much for me to deal with for more than 3 minutes.

Add to that the fact that nearly every song on this album blends together in a mash of distortion and  weak melodies, and I can't really see why anyone, outside of hardcore Best Coast fans would enjoy this at all. It is even hard to zone out to because you'll be perpetually brought back to consciousness by how melodramatic and corny nearly every line on this album is; case and point, the track "Heaven Sent".

I've been listening to a lot of rock music lately and while I've had the pleasure of enjoying some really great new rock albums, I've had just as many, if not more, bland and forgettable ones; this album is of the latter category. Best Coast seem to like the way they sound because they literally haven't changed anything in the past 5 years, feel free to prove me wrong.

Anyway, I'm not going to waste any more time on this album; I didn't like it, not at all and think that if you're looking for a sunny, feel good rock album, go listen to that Alvvays album from last year, or just go listen to The Drums self-titled, both are actually catchy and balance the melodrama with some legitimately great songs.

2.0/10