Always Tomorrow by Best Coast
by Lana Fleischli
I wanted my first review to be an album that got me through 2020. In the beginning of the year, I was starved for new music to listen to, then Always Tomorrow came out.
Best Coast has been a band that I have listened to for at least five years now. I was hooked when I heard “Feeling Ok”, so much so that for my eleventh birthday, I made a music video for it starring all of my friends. Recently, I got the chance to interview Bethany Consentino for That’s Interesting, which is a zine that my friend and I work on. The interview was done over email, (because that’s how the past year has been,) but I was so excited about it.
When I was still in school, I would take the bus every morning bright and early, I always listened to music in the morning because it was just a nice way to begin my day. When “Everything Has Changed” and “Different Light” hit Spotify, they immediately became a part of my morning music routine. I played them on the bus every morning.
When the full album came out, I listened to it again and again. It got to the point that I would be listening to it with my headphones on during study hall and I would start singing it (loudly) in the library without realizing it. Luckily I had my friends there who were able to let me know.
The beauty of this album comes from the idea of change. Best Coast’s Bethany Consentino and Bob Bruno started with Crazy For You, which is about Consentino being obsessed with a guy, to Always Tomorrow which is about self reflection. She sings about regretting past things she had done, like how she “used to drink nothing but water and whiskey”, and then follows up with saying how things are getting better and how “everything has changed”.
My personal favorite song on the album is “Master of My Own Mind”. Best Coast has a flare where they can be making a song about very dark things and still make it seem super happy. “Master of My Own Mind” does just that. It is about being scared of the future, being worried, feeling foggy, yet trying to remember how to control it. I think this is a feeling that most people can relate to, especially now.
The whole album goes back and forth about feeling good, then feeling scared of getting back into the past. To me, there isn’t a definitive answer of where she stands, but that’s because the story isn’t over. The album Always Tomorrow is about getting over those vices that torment us, and still being tempted by them. It’s about raw emotion. It’s about being human.
