Bethany Cosentino’s wardrobe reflecting the division in the Jukebox over her new song…

[Video][Website]
[5.38]

Alfred Soto: Of course you know why the sun’s in the sky, and so do Rilo Kiley.
[3]

Rebecca A. Gowns: I love the Jenny Lewis vibes I’m getting here. Some of the repetition starts to grate; you know, Best Coast has always had the tendency to find one great riff then run with it ad nauseum. However, I feel like this is a notch more complex than her previous recordings (just a notch), so she’s getting marks for improvement.
[7]

Patrick St. Michel: It’s not how Best Coast envisioned this, but I like to think they were playing around with the slow-dance thing and, when they realized it was plodding and shining a lot on Best Coast’s worst aspect (the lyrics), they said “fuck it” and launched into what they can actually do well (play fast). Either way, I wish it didn’t take almost a minute and a half to reach the good part.
[5]

Brad Shoup: The sentiment is ass, the rhyme scheme is ass, the bridge is ass, the mixing on the steel is ass, the dropouts are ass. That fake ending was the one raisin in this oatmeal, but only because I thought this thing had mercifully cut out before the two-minute mark.
[1]

Katherine St Asaph: Bethany Cosentino doesn’t really bother writing a song. She arranges the song she didn’t quite write as overwrought Mazzy Star. Realizing this is a godawful idea, she arranges the song she didn’t quite write as fake pop-punk, a disguise that’d work if it wasn’t two minutes late.
[3]

Anthony Easton: I think that I love this because it sounds like a roughed up, ever-so-slightly modernized version of the Ronettes or the Shangri-Las: all harmonized heartbreaks. It might also be the lyrics — that line about the sun, how she sings “I’ve been in trouble” more raw than any of Bruce La Bruce’s butchboy JD fantasies, but with similar historical outlook. Extra point for how the guitars speed up.
[9]

Jonathan Bradley: I can’t do anything. I can’t remember why you left. You don’t know why I cry. Who have I become? That’s not our deal. I don’t want to be how they want me to be. Bethany Cosentino has tried nothing and she’s all out of ideas, so the only innovation in the scuzz-wop of “I Don’t Know How” is that, this time, the tears and sunshine sparkle even brighter than usual. But there’s no shame in being the kind of band that, like Placebo or Phoenix, does one thing really well, and this is one of Best Coast’s best meditations on the mutually reinforcing aspects of boredom and uselessness and heartsickness. Bleh has never been prettier.
[8]

Daniel Montesinos-Donaghy: Shock: a Best Coast song about being bummed out and let down, of feeling unsure with your emotions. The feeling of confusion holds and grows even more palatable when “I Don’t Know How” picks up the pace, culminating in a bittersweet chant lead by Bethany Cosentino: “You see me everywhere! You walk around without a care!” Titling a bait-and-switch jam like this “I Don’t Know How” shows a patina of irony, though. The heartache and embarrassment may be real, but the song’s embrace of speed shows just enough gumption to get out of the bottle ‘n’ jukebox droop scene and to let it all out on a floor with the other skankers.
[7]