The Only Place

by Best Coast

Overview

For their second album, The Only Place, California duo Best Coast hired Jon Brion as producer. Right away it's clear that the fuzzily lo-fi noise pop sound of their debut, Crazy for You, was a thing of the past, and the band was looking to smooth things out quite noticeably. Hiring Brion to produce a noise pop record is like asking Rothko to paint your mailbox. What Brion and the band have done is replace the simplistic drone of the distorted guitars with a more layered, much janglier sound, added tons of space to the arrangements, and made sure each song gets the sonic approach it needs instead of the set-it-up-and-record-it style of Crazy. The result is an album that has a classic pop/rock sound that anyone who's heard an R.E.M. or Beach Boys or Springsteen record will instantly identify with and understand. It may disappoint anyone who wanted Crazy for You, Pt. 2, but the band didn't make this record for those people. On a sonic level alone, the record works very well. Bethany Cosentino reliably writes super-catchy melodies and sings them winningly, Bobb Bruno does a fine job filling in the songs with hooky guitar lines, and Brion adds the little touches that have made his name as a producer. The uptempo songs have a light bounce that will have people bopping along, the ballads have fully realized arrangements that sound dreamy as can be, and the whole record has a warmth that was missing from anything the band did before. Give the group credit for taking a step forward from Crazy for You: the album sounds great, full of catchy and well-crafted songs. ~ Tim Sendra

Product Details

Release Date:	05/15/2012
Label:	Mexican Summer
UPC:	0184923110913
Rank:	59236

Tracks

1. The Only Place
2. Why I Cry
3. Last Year
4. My Life
5. No One Like You
6. How They Want Me To Be
7. Better Girl
8. Do You Love Me Like You Used To
9. Dreaming My Life Away
10. Let's Go Home
11. Up All Night

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Best Coast   Primary Artist
Jon Brion   Bass,Keyboards,Percussion,Lap Steel Guitar,Guitar (12 String)
Bobb Bruno   Bass,Drums,Guitar
Bethany Cosentino   Guitar,Vocals

Technical Credits

Greg Koller   Mixing,Engineer
Eric Caudieux   Editing
Jon Brion   Producer
Chandler Harrod   Assistant Engineer
Patricia Sullivan Fourstar   Mastering
David Black   Photography
Dan Schechter   Design,Art Direction
Jake Gorski   Assistant Engineer
Bethany Cosentino   Composer
Jess Rotter   Illustrations