Bethany Cosentino - Natural Disaster

Bethany Cosentino isn’t exactly a stranger to wearing her heart on her sleeve, but on solo debut ‘Natural Disaster’ we really get a window into who she is now. Shedding the more scuzzy surf-rock that informed her early years within Best Coast, here, she plays with a richer, more confident sound inspired by the likes of Stevie Nicks, Christine McVie and Sheryl Crow. The nerve-touching ‘Easy’ comes led by piano and her gloriously warm vocals, while country-pop and classic rock references pepper the record as a whole.

It’s not just a new sonic palette that’s on offer; lyrically, Bethany is at her most vulnerable and open, exploring the conflicting tangle of expectation and loss, of womanhood and aging (“Growing up is easy when you’re 17 / Now I’m 35 and I don’t quite know what it means”). It’s also an album unmistakably rooted in the present, pondering the current state of the world (“This is the hottest summer I can ever remember / ‘Coz the world is on fire” goes the title track’s chorus) and whether our personal worries are all just futile regardless. A rich, multifaceted insight into contradictory nature of growing up and older, this is Bethany’s finest move yet.