EP Review Best Coast – Fade Away

An EP – or mini-album, as interchangeable as the terms may be – is, by default, a transitional release. There’s too much to say to put just one song out, and yet not enough to complete a record, and the material isn’t deemed likely to fit with a further few songs.

It’s no surprise that the songs on ‘Fade Away’ are on such a release, nor that Bethany Cosentino’s likely to write more to fit alongside them. These are transitional songs. Without wishing to peek too far in to Bethany’s world and make guesses as to just how personal the songs themselves are (though, with an artist who documents her every move on Instagram is unlikely to be the most obtuse) the themes are largely self-evident. “My heart is open like a door”, she sings on ‘Baby I’m Crying’, “but I don’t trust you any more”.

Musically it’s very much as you were, country-tinged alt-rock, a little punkier in places, a little less scared of making a racket. ‘Who Have I Become’, Bethany’s asking in the song of the same name. By the next Best Coast album proper, it’s pretty clear she’ll have a much better idea.