Review: Car Seat Headrest — ‘Twin Fantasy’
Indie-Rock (2018)
Hard-hitting, boundlessly creative and brilliantly produced, Will Toledo’s increasingly emphatic band follow up 2016’s breakthrough Teens of Denial with a full reworking of their frontman’s sprawling 2011 Bandcamp release, giving an immense new dimension to songs which might otherwise have remained consigned to their back-catalogue. Twin Fantasy maintains everything that makes Toledo’s music so unique, from its linear, ever-developing song structures to the witty introspection of its lyrics. What makes it truly special, however, is Car Seat Headrest’s ultimate arrival as one of the best bands in the world rather than simply the project of one songwriter who needed to find other musicians to perform with. Spoilers folks: this album is fucking phenomenal.
CSH’s previous two albums were successful explorations of the lo-fi, limited production aesthetic which grew naturally out of Toledo’s bedroom-recorded origins. Twin Fantasy leaves this behind, instead delivering a towering wall of sound à la Phil Spector or Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run. The sound production is absolutely perfect, filling all the available space in the audio field in the album’s most powerful moments such as in opening track ‘My Boy (Twin Fantasy)’, where Toledo emotively exclaims “it’ll take some time, but somewhere down the line we won’t be alone”, resolving to move on from the breakup about which his younger self had written so much of the original album. Even in quieter moments like ‘Stop Smoking (We Love You)’ there is still a rich tone to the acoustic guitars, resonating most effectively in the intro of ‘Sober to Death’ and the middle section of ‘Bodys’ which feature beautiful arpeggiated riffs making heavy use of naturally-reverberating open guitar strings.
Nevertheless, the band’s new sound does not disrupt the intimacy between musician and listener that has always been such an important part of CSH’s appeal. “Most of the time that I use the word ‘you’/ well you know that I’m mostly singing about you” says Toledo through the fourth wall on ‘Nervous Young Inhumans’, before toying with his audience on the following track by speaking between verses to ask “is it the chorus yet? No, it’s just a building of the verse so when the chorus does come it’ll be more rewarding”. These spoken, sample-like passages become increasingly frequent as the album progresses, culminating in the closing track ‘Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)’ with an address to the listener inviting them to “pour one out, whoever you are/ These are only lyrics now”. It’s an engaging technique which is reminiscent of the spoken-word poem running through Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp a Butterfly; it commands the listener’s attention and encourages them to relate their own feelings and experiences to Toledo’s narrative. The album constructs an intricate portrayal of a relationship through both poetically abstract and directly material imagery, specific to the frontman in its personal recollections yet still managing to be relatable.
As for the performances on the album, Andrew Katz’s drumming shines through from the heart of the band’s immense sound. His constantly evolving grooves carry the momentum of Toledo’s sprawling 13 minute epic ‘Beach Life-In-Death’ through its various sections, adding an unrelenting and muscular drive to song which grips the listener from start to finish. Among his other highlights are the fills in the middle section of ‘Cute Thing’, balancing subtlety with effectiveness as his sound reverberates during the brief moments of silence from the rest of the band. Nevertheless, it is Toledo’s songwriting which ultimately makes this such a special album. He has an incredible knack for knowing how and when to build up a song, introduce new sections, or change direction entirely without it ever feeling forced. Most songs are over 5 minutes long, ‘Famous Prophets (Stars)’ has a run time of over 16 minutes, yet the album does not feel like it drags as Teens of Denial occasionally did because of how well Toledo navigates the numerous musical ideas which combine as part of his unique style.
In an era where guitar-based music seems mostly devoid of new ideas, Car Seat Headrest are pushing the boundaries of rock and roll in a way that almost no one else can. Twin Fantasy is fresh, vibrant, and unimpeded by the clichés of its genre — there’s nothing else like it right now. An instant classic.
~ 10/10 ~
