Kevin Bronson on May 3rd, 2023

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Bethany Cosentino today dropped a solo single and some big news. So where do we start?

Well, the news is that Best Coast, the indie-pop duo she founded with Bobb Bruno in the early Obama years, is going on “indefinite hiatus.” More on that in a bit.

The single is titled “It’s Fine,” and it’s the first taste of the album “Natural Disaster,” made with producer Butch Walker and releasing on July 28 via Concord Records. “It’s Fine” is a blue-collar roots-rocker with empowerment running through its veins, something that does right by Cosentino’s stated influences (Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, ’90s country icons and artists who played Lilith Fair).

As for Best Coast, who released four albums between 2010 and ’20, Cosentino says: “My identity as a human being, and as an artist, has been so wrapped up in Best Coast for over a decade. The decision to pause the project indefinitely, and explore a new side of myself, was a very difficult one to make — but it felt necessary for me. Life is too short to not give yourself what you feel you need and want. I am excited about being just Bethany Cosentino for a while and figuring out who I am outside of the ‘Bethany from Best Coast’ box I’ve lived in for such a long time.”

As she sings on “It’s Fine,” “I am evolved” from the twentysomething she sensed Best Coast fans will always want her to be.

“I looked at myself long and hard in the mirror, and I realized that I too had been bringing myself back to that place,” she says. “I kept proclaiming to the world, ‘I’ve changed, I’ve evolved!’’ but I hadn’t gotten to the place I really wanted to be yet. It became really clear to me that I needed to push myself into a completely different direction. Because the road I was on was just ultimately taking me back to square one.”

Janell Shirtcliff directs the video for “It’s Fine.”

||| Watch: The video for “It’s Fine”