Pretty great coast

As a songwriter, Best Coast frontwoman Bethany Cosentino is about as face value as they come. Those who enjoyed her 2010 debut “Crazy for You” insisted that to criticize her unabashedly recycled chord patterns or point-blank lyrics about summer love and weed was to miss the point.

That much hasn’t changed on her sophomore LP, “The Only Place.”

Cosentino is still a girl who knows what she wants and doesn’t care much for masking it — even the cover art depicts, literally, a big bear hug for California, as if the names of her band and album weren’t hint enough.

What’s changed is her mindset. In interviews leading up to its release, Cosentino vehemently declared this album more mature, and if by that she meant less day-dreamy and more confident, this is true.

Jon Brion’s production does away with the signature lo-fi fuzz of Best Coast’s sound in favor of sharpening guitar parts and bringing forth Cosentino’s (improved) singing voice. The result is 34 minutes of updates on 1960s girl group pop filtered through the psyche of a young beach dweller raised on pop punk.

Cosentino still frequently relies on corny couplets with no shame (“crazy/lazy” is back), but if you can see past these to the remarkably concise and sincere pop songs at the center, this album can be just as rewarding as the group’s first.

By Steven Arroyo