After over a decade with Best Coast, the release of Bethany Cosentino's first solo album feels like a reintroduction to one of the 2010 indie scene's most ubiquitous figures. Written and recorded following the cancellation of the tour for her band's fourth album, Natural Disaster builds on the laid-back, Californian sound that defined much of Best Coast's catalogue, and is a reflective time capsule of a moment between distinct chapters in Cosentino's life.
As she suggests throughout the album, much has changed in Cosentino's world since she and bandmate Bob Bruno emerged from the Los Angeles scene in 2009. Having spent her 20s and early 30s as its songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist, Cosentino came of age under the blogosphere's scrutiny, and has never been shy about sharing her experiences, whether through her frankly personal songwriting or through a keyboard. Now, at 36, this record sees Cosentino reflecting on her own evolution. In Natural Disaster, she's crafted an artifact that will feel at once familiar to those who followed her work with Best Coast and also distinctly her own, merging vulnerability with a dry sense of humour, and deploying to full effect her well-honed skill for blending sincere nostalgia with her own brand of millennial irony.
If Cosentino has changed, so too has the state that she calls home. California has acted as the dreamy backdrop to much of her work, but here, the symptoms of a rapidly changing climate are unmistakable in her environment. While nostalgia once lent an air of escapism to Cosentino's songwriting, it now feels all the more poignant alongside lyrics that lay bare the sense of nascent destruction that now haunts much of the west coast. On the title track, girl group sha-la-las float alongside descriptions that evoke a vaguely pre-apocalyptic landscape, and recurring references to flames, fire and drought ("For a Moment," "Hope You're Happy Now") are only somewhat softened by the sunny melodies that accompany them.
Cosentino herself seems resigned to the impending end of the world (no longer a melodramatic musing, but an increasingly realistic inevitability), and hovers between detachment and resolve in its face. On Natural Disaster, she leans into the storytelling and big, singalong melodies of the '90s radio stars of her childhood, finding respite from the ominous reality of a scorching summer by focusing on the lives of strangers. The title track and "Outta Time" in particular feel pulled from the Sheryl Crow songbook, capturing and elevating everyday moments to create a patchwork of day-in-the-life vignettes. Cosentino's vocals are impressive throughout, from forceful and urgent on the heavy-hitting chorus of "Outta Time" to sweetly stirring, as on album closer "I've Got News for You."
The album is also full of nods to the country music she grew up with, and a Midwestern sensibility permeates tracks like "Real Life" and "Calling on Angels," at times adding an almost wistful quality to Cosentino's meditations on growth and her relationship to the past. Over the course of its 12 tracks, Natural Disaster moves easily back and forth through time, and the impulse to look fondly at scenes in the rearview mirror feels reasonable given the planet's seemingly grim future.
That doesn't stop Cosentino from wanting to move forward, though. "I don't want to stay the same," she asserts on "My Own City," and the album itself provides plenty of evidence to support that statement. However, Cosentino is nothing if not self-aware, and seems acutely attuned to the irony of trying to evolve in a world moving toward its own destruction. It's a testament to Cosentino's ability to harness the Golden State's innate optimism that she still manages to suggest a bright side to living in a world on fire, as Natural Disaster invites us to join her in making the most of whatever time we have.
(Concord)As she suggests throughout the album, much has changed in Cosentino's world since she and bandmate Bob Bruno emerged from the Los Angeles scene in 2009. Having spent her 20s and early 30s as its songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist, Cosentino came of age under the blogosphere's scrutiny, and has never been shy about sharing her experiences, whether through her frankly personal songwriting or through a keyboard. Now, at 36, this record sees Cosentino reflecting on her own evolution. In Natural Disaster, she's crafted an artifact that will feel at once familiar to those who followed her work with Best Coast and also distinctly her own, merging vulnerability with a dry sense of humour, and deploying to full effect her well-honed skill for blending sincere nostalgia with her own brand of millennial irony.
If Cosentino has changed, so too has the state that she calls home. California has acted as the dreamy backdrop to much of her work, but here, the symptoms of a rapidly changing climate are unmistakable in her environment. While nostalgia once lent an air of escapism to Cosentino's songwriting, it now feels all the more poignant alongside lyrics that lay bare the sense of nascent destruction that now haunts much of the west coast. On the title track, girl group sha-la-las float alongside descriptions that evoke a vaguely pre-apocalyptic landscape, and recurring references to flames, fire and drought ("For a Moment," "Hope You're Happy Now") are only somewhat softened by the sunny melodies that accompany them.
Cosentino herself seems resigned to the impending end of the world (no longer a melodramatic musing, but an increasingly realistic inevitability), and hovers between detachment and resolve in its face. On Natural Disaster, she leans into the storytelling and big, singalong melodies of the '90s radio stars of her childhood, finding respite from the ominous reality of a scorching summer by focusing on the lives of strangers. The title track and "Outta Time" in particular feel pulled from the Sheryl Crow songbook, capturing and elevating everyday moments to create a patchwork of day-in-the-life vignettes. Cosentino's vocals are impressive throughout, from forceful and urgent on the heavy-hitting chorus of "Outta Time" to sweetly stirring, as on album closer "I've Got News for You."
The album is also full of nods to the country music she grew up with, and a Midwestern sensibility permeates tracks like "Real Life" and "Calling on Angels," at times adding an almost wistful quality to Cosentino's meditations on growth and her relationship to the past. Over the course of its 12 tracks, Natural Disaster moves easily back and forth through time, and the impulse to look fondly at scenes in the rearview mirror feels reasonable given the planet's seemingly grim future.
That doesn't stop Cosentino from wanting to move forward, though. "I don't want to stay the same," she asserts on "My Own City," and the album itself provides plenty of evidence to support that statement. However, Cosentino is nothing if not self-aware, and seems acutely attuned to the irony of trying to evolve in a world moving toward its own destruction. It's a testament to Cosentino's ability to harness the Golden State's innate optimism that she still manages to suggest a bright side to living in a world on fire, as Natural Disaster invites us to join her in making the most of whatever time we have.
