We’re taking a break from our Annual Report to highlight the Song of the Week. In this feature, we talk about the song we just can’t get out of our head each week. Find these songs and more on our Spotify Top Songs playlist. For our favorite new songs from emerging artists, check out our Spotify New Sounds playlist. This week, Best Coast is back with a little help from rising stars The Linda Lindas.
Pop culture right now seems dominated by a certain amount of sentimentality. Rebooting and revamping have become the norm, and people are starting to push back on the oversaturation.
Best Coast probably weren’t intending to jump into that exact discourse with their latest, “Leading,” but the opening line is a relatable statement nonetheless: “Nostalgia’s overrated, or maybe it’s just complicated/ Who even has the time to think about it anymore?” Yes, TV and movies are getting repetitive and reductive, but who even has the time to think about that when the world keeps finding new and creative ways to crumble around us?
Overall, the song captures the spirit of trying to find joy and reasons to continue when the future feels like a big, dismal question mark. Or, as vocalist Bethany Cosentino put it in a press statement, we are all “trying to find hope during the apocalypse.” This idea of leaving the on-fire world to be inherited by a new generation is heightened by the presence of The Linda Lindas on backing vocals.
The Linda Lindas are very young, in every sense; the tiny punk legends in the making broke through with a performance of original song “Racist, Sexist Boy” six months ago (current view count: 1.1 million), and their youngest member is just 11 years old. Cosentino described The Linda Lindas as her “favorite young voices” recently, and “Leading” allows them to shine on a track heavy with classic Best Coast vibes.
— Mary Siroky
Contributing Editor
