“I just want to lose that stoner cat girl label and for people to take me more seriously,” said Bethany Cosentino recently. Yes, her band’s 2010 debut, Crazy for You, won kudos from music critics, cool kids and even Drew Barrymore, who directed one of its videos. But at the same time, the blogworld got preoccupied with its references to weed and mocked one of Cosentino’s less than Joni Mitchell-esque lyrics: “I wish my cat could talk.”

Cosentino’s also admitted that she tired of hearing the term lo-fi attached to her band’s indie-meets-girl-group sound. Consequently, she and bandmate Bobb Bruno have recruited Fiona Apple/Kanye West producer Jon Brion to ensure this follow-up is less ramshackle.

Best Coast still sound like Best Coast, but now they’re tidier, shinier and looking us right in the eye. The revelation is the vocals. No longer hiding behind harmonies and production fuzz, Cosentino is a strong and confident singer; she attacks No One Like You like a valley girl Patsy Cline.

The album’s hat trick of up-tempo cuts are so infectious they recall The Go-Go’s, and it’s hard not to wish there were a couple more. But most of The Only Place is mid-tempo, introspective and very candid. Written while Cosentino was processing her transition from a shopgirl to indie pin-up, these songs are filled with inertia, confusion, frustration and homesickness. Sample couplet: “I’m always crying on the phone / Because I know that I’ll end up alone.”

But despite this self-involved subject matter, and Cosentino’s strict adherence to the June/moon/spoon school of songwriting, The Only Place never irritates. Thanks to the sweetness of its melodies, the sheer ear candy of its Cali-pop jangle, and the yearning in those vocals, it’s less depressing than wistful – like watching the clouds as the sun fades.

Bethany Cosentino is still figuring out who she is – track titles like Better Girl and How They Want Me to Be practically admit as much. But listening to this musically confident and lyrically unflinching second album, it’s clear she’s no stoner cat girl.

(Source: BBC)

• Released 2 April 2012. Ninja Tune

Joe Corrales Jr’s 2009 album, They Know What Ghost Know, displayed a maturing and deepening of the sound presented on his occasionally brilliant but ultimately patchy debut, You Are Beautiful at All Times. Now with Eighty One, the Texan’s third outing as Yppah (pronounced ‘yippah’), that early promise seems to have fully come to fruition.

Named after Corrales’ year of birth, Eighty One shares the same references, from shoegaze to hip hop and electronica, that peppered his previous releases. But these 11 tracks demonstrate the first time those various strands have combined to consistently come into full, glorious focus. Eighty One is where the Cocteau Twins, M83, Bent and Ulrich Schnauss conjoin for a jubilant, serotonin-soaked party.

At times, Corrales just allows fragments of these influences to seep into his expansive, almost overwhelming productions. Opener Blue Schwinn is dusted with Liz Fraser-styled vocal snatches, the buzzing synths, stylus scratches and wafting of Anomie Belle’s voice on D. Song are joined by the hint of an anthemic dancefloor hook, while R. Mullen sees the essence of raps and sampled soul croons distilled into its buoyant, larger-than-life whole.

At times these influences come closer to the fore, such as on the album’s lead single, Film Burn. Here, a light, dancing melody is joined by distorted hip hop beats before Belle’s reverb-drenched vocals reveal Yppah’s shoegazing heart in full.

Each track is imbued with a playfulness that’s demonstrated by the sound of giggling children that opens the album and throughout every sunny melody that follows. Deceptively naive yet emotionally powerful, Corrales’ music seems to have pure joy as its main driving force – which is perhaps unsurprising considering his choice of a pseudonym that’s half ‘yippee’ and half ‘hurrah’.

Shimmering guitars, forceful, full-bodied beats and uplifting electronic interludes may have always formed the basis of Yppah’s sound, but here they merge to form what could prove to be one of the most uplifting and beautifully realised albums of the year.

If times in 2012 are tough, nobody told Joe Corrales. This set is a fantastically optimistic and life-affirming antidote to these bleak ‘days of austerity’.

(Source: BBC)

• Released 27 February 2012. Atlantic Records

And the highs are dizzying. Lenslife is the repeat player, all big brass and euphoria with a chorus that’s unexpected every time you hear it – it sounds like Eno and Byrne have parachuted into The Maccabees. But it’s nearly matched by Tightrope, which is a bit of an indie skiffle all told, only with drunken Beirut horns and discordant piano giving it some welcome weirdness. By its end, it’s hurtling towards Dexys-patented amphetamine soul.

Shiny Things does intriguing things too, coming on like dour-period OMD covering Bee Gees’ You Win Again before pummelling away into another of those brassy finishes. There’s little doubt Fanfarlo want to be big – that’s Big Music rather than Coldplay-massive, although the cash probably won’t hurt – but they have their limitations. Singer Simon Balthazar is from the 80s indie school of mannered vocals, always a barrier to leaping out of your speakers, and Fanfarlo can’t shake that lingering temptation to skip off into twee. Still, one man’s limitations are another fellow’s charms, and Rooms Filled With Light never dips beneath beguiling. Most of the time it’s really quite grand.

+ UPCOMING GIGS
may 6 _ Gebäude 9, Cologne, Germany
may 15 _ Botanique, Brussels, Belgium
may 16 _ Indiestad 2012 @ Bitterzoet, Amsterdam, Netherlands

(Source: BBC)