“Coast” was written in 2020 after being at her friend Mike Montgomery’s wedding when the house band, The Grape Whizzers, jammed Jimmy Buffett’s 1977 “Margaritaville” with “revelatory levels of low self-esteem.” But the song’s roots reach back as far as 2000, when Kim was staying on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket. An unlikely retreat for the Ohio native (“I hate the sun, beach and watersports,”), she spent a rough off-season where young workers “check the WAM” for surfing conditions.
“Coast” was recorded by Steve Albini at his Electrical Audio studio in Chicago. Lindsay Glover and Breeders alum Mando Lopez are the song’s rhythm section, Kim’s sister Kelley plays guitar and horns are by Chicago marching band Mucca Pazza.