“Our Deal”
from the album Crazy for You
2010
iTunes
Bethany Cosentino sings simply and directly about simple, direct emotions — no mirrors, no pretenses, guard totally down. But here, she’s talking about not talking: “I wish you would tell me how you really feel / But you’ll never tell me, ’cause that’s not our deal.” The song doesn’t beg, plead, or come close to anything quite so theatrical; it’s a shrug of bummed indifference. She’d like things to be different but she’s knows the score — and anyway, fuck it. On “Our Deal,” Best Coast’s sunny garage-pop takes on an old-school country lilt that taps into a musical ancestry that runs deeper and further back than the girl-group echoes of previous singles. And, as with Dum Dum Girls‘ I Will Be, the track’s muffled, bled-together ambiance evokes ghosts of pop’s past in a way that feels intentional but never forced. “Our Deal,” like everything Cosentino has released so far, is both innocent and longing, and those qualities feed off each other instead of pulling her in different directions. She’s not trying to break our heart, but if it happens, she doesn’t mind. Full-length debut Crazy for You is out July 27.