The blaring difference in this new offering from Best Coast is how quiet it is compared to Crazy for You, but it would be misleading to say that this new record is a departure from Bethany’s bedroom musings and Bob’s playful melodies. Lyrically speaking, it still feels as if we’re reading our younger sister’s diary …

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Hear those lush reverberated cacophonies coming out of Highland Park? That is Secret Alphabet, and this four-piece band drones and smashes its way through its latest offering, The Light, The Way. Reviews of the band liken them to Spacemen 3 and the Jesus and Mary Chain, and from the opener, “Dirty Magazine,” you can tell those influences will pave the way for what is in store for the rest of the album: fuzzy-distorted guitar riffs hovering over simple steady drumming and droning bass lines.

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A Day Late & A Dollar Short has real focus, showing a thoughtful and concentrated effort by both Sene and Blu to make this album about exactly what the title implies: survival and hunger.

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The clear winner for me was “I Knew a Young Girl.” Stripped of all the fuzz and fog that are associated with trying to sound vintage, the song stands alone—haunting but at the same time beautiful. Singer-songwriter Evan Way guides you with his melody until the gentle backing vocals of Brette Marie carry you off. Before you’re wisped away into the Pacific, the song ends and you’re alone.

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