Best Coast - Always Tomorrow (Deluxe Edition) (2022)

On the shoegaze-swirly "I Used to Be," Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino nails the theme of the band's fourth album: "I am not the same girl that I used to be." This is a soundtrack of rebirth, five years after the band's last release and the first since Cosentino got sober. She sounds absolutely joyous about her new life on "For the First Time" and "Everything Has Changed," where Best Coast's other half Bobb Bruno pounds out "I Love Rock 'N' Roll" drums beneath a Muffs-esque melody. Cosentino also sounds bigger and better: a fuller voice complimented with layered harmonies, as on "Different Light," which charges out of the gate with a Go-Go's punch of bright chords and surf punk drums. There's plenty of swooning romance to balance the hard-charging energy — "True" summons up 1950s prom sweetness, and the big guitar licks of "Master of My Own Mind" melt into a dreamy bridge. "I quit drinking so I could stop thinking about all the shit from years ago," Cosentino sings on "Graceless Kids." Sounds like it worked. © Shelly Ridenour / Qobuz