SOUNDTRACK: BEST COAST-“Everything Has Changed” (2020).
I’ve enjoyed most of the Best Coast songs I’ve heard–simple power pop songs from Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno that can be surprisingly dark.
Although Best Coast is a duo, this song is multi tracked with all kinds of overdubs–lots of backing vocals and guitar solos. It sounds bigger than anything they’ve done before with loud crunchy guitars and a really simple riff. And it is catchy as anything.
I like this couple of lines
I used to cry myself to sleep/ Reading all the names they called me,
….
Did they think? No, of course they didn’t.
After the big chorus she talks about what has changed
Now I’m walking a little dog on a leash
Now I live in a big pink house
I escape to witch mountain every day
I honestly don’t know if that’s a positive or sarcastic change. But the chorus “everything has changed and I like it this way” certainly sounds positive.
One thing I particularly like about this song is that while it is all pretty simple verse/chorus, there is a third part that changes the tone and sound of the song, if only briefly, before returning to the catchy riffage.
I have plans to see them this spring and I’m looking forward to hearing this new record live.
[READ: January 15, 2019] “Who is She?”
In this brief story a woman has an existential crisis and her public reaction to it causes others to suggest ways to help her.
She says a long time ago someone told her that it was important to “locate and deploy” your own story. This theory is put into question when she starts seeing graffiti around that says in white paint WHO IS SHE?
She saw it in a number of places and couldn’t get the idea out of her mind. As she was crossing a boulevard, she decided to lie down on the grass in the median strip.
It was early on a Sunday and therefore very quiet but soon enough cars began passing. Across the street from her was a gym and there were people working out with ruthless, glistening intensity, And then (I rather enjoyed this),
every woman and well-greased man and woman joined hands and faced the median to say in unison, “Because we are so beautiful and because it is illegal to have sex in public and because we wish the world could see how beautiful we are when we have sexual relations with one another … and because none of us think of ourselves as pornographers and because we are sad that the world cannot watch us have sex with one another, because of this we have taken this very personal and private oath as publicly as possible, and so we will be here as often as we can, even more often than we can, and we will be here doing this being seen doing this and doing this and being watched doing it.
When it was dusk, a car pulled up and a woman got out and spoke to her. She asked if she felt safe and then cautioned her that she had a man in the car with her, “But don’t worry he wont come over here unless I tell him to.” The woman told her that since she’d been pegging him, he’d begun to understand the world better. And did she know that “nearly 70 percent of American females with P.T.S.D. have a trigger associated with the smell of Old Spice?”
The narrator wanted to reply but then she began thinking about how normal everything seemed before she saw the graffiti. She kept a nice home with a nice man and people who saw them together would tell the how secure their love made them fell.
The woman left, insulted and then a homeless advocate offered her food and shelter. She said she wasn’t homeless, just lying down. Then a young man from the gym came over and lay down next to her. He asked her if she wanted to work on her abs,
Is there a solution to be found?
This story was a little to cryptic for my enjoyment, and that seems to be a trait of the Lacey stories I’ve read.
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