Yeah, I'm predictable, sorry. In my defense I've had this planned for like two month, it's just been a long time since my last turn.So you guys have heard my general Car Seat Headrest rant, but I'll recap it real quick. Will Toledo has released 11 albums on bandcamp since May 2010 and last year he finally started getting the recognition he deserved and got signed to Matador Records. He rerecorded and released a collection of songs that is a sort of "Greatest Hits" which was his label debut titled Teens of Style and he is expected to follow that this year with Teens of Denial. This is an older one which was released in 2011.
I love Will Toledo's songwriting, I love the intimacy created by his lofi production style, I love the way he delivers his lyrics. It might take a bit to break into his sonic universe but once it clicks, it's incredibly rewarding, so my advice is just put this album on as much as you possibly can this week and Will's melodies will worm into your heads and make you want to come back for more.
One of the most impressive things about his songwriting for me is his ability to write a 10 plus minute song that has different chapters that tie together and weave in and out of each other beautifully. One of my favorite Car Seat Headrest songs, "Ending of Dramamine", is not on this album, but I encourage you to listen to it also. Like most of his music, I think it's a great song for traveling and thinking.
I could go on forever but I won't. This is really great, creative, passionate, inspiring, and beautiful music. Please please push through the production. I promise it becomes charming. It's a long one so if you have to try to focus on a few songs, try for "Beach Life-in-Death" and "Sober to Death". Enjoy!
I found this album really enjoyable, even from the first listen.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite song is probably Beach Life in Death. It's very rare that I actually like the really long >10 minute tracks on an album, but this one I enjoyed. I think it's just because it encompassed so many feelings. It was almost like watching a short film, since it had a beginning middle and end. You could tell he had a story to tell, and I think he executed it wonderfully. And then you have Stop Smoking, which acts as a nice comic relief segment directly after.
The only downside of having such a long song as the second track is that it sort of exhausts the listener kind of early on. I found that when listening to the album in its entirety, I didn't care as much about the remainder of the album. However, listening to those songs individually proves them to be quality songs on their own. I think it would probably take me more than a week to really get into all these songs, so I'll definitely have to come back later.
I did have some complaints, but I don't know if they're valid since a lot of my initial problems with the album sort of dissolved as I listened to it more. All in all, good pick, I'll have to listen to more of Carseat in the future.
What a good album Nora.
ReplyDeleteWill Toledo does something very captivating with his music. He makes twelve minute lofi songs that are captivating and intimate. I think he's truly at his best when he's creating these long winding songs. They almost feel like albums within albums, which breaks the mold within the genre. Some Lo-fi records are shorter than two of his tunes. Yet, somehow what he does is far more attention holding than many of his shorter winded peers.
There is something about Will Toledo that just makes this project work. The songs share a similar instrumentation throughout (well, except the lovely little Stop Smoking) and his vocals are not exactly beautiful, in recording or tone. Despite what would be seemingly be setbacks, these work in his favor. It almost feels like the kind of thing a friend would record in their bedroom, it is extremely easy to connect to.
All in all, I very much enjoyed this and all his other work. Looking forward to Teens of Denial.
Weirdly, I have heard this album a fair amount before, but I've never actually given it a full listen. Car Seat Headrest has been a band that I recently discovered and almost immediately put into the rotation of albums that I fall asleep to. This is not to say that this album is a real snooze though.
ReplyDeleteThe appeal of this album to me is just how mellow it is when it's at its baseline. The muffled vocals and usually sparse instrumentation puts me at ease as either something I can engage with or can have be the white noise behind wandering thoughts. This is at its baseline though. Something I noticed by giving this album a real listen is how high the more shoegaze-y elements can get. Beach Life-In-Death is a pretty good example of this as it has several moments with big walls of guitar reverb and Will's version of shouting.
I think my biggest knock against this album is just how much it beats you over the head with the Lo-Fi aesthetic. I tended to listen to this album in chunks just because I would start to get annoyed with the muffle-core vocals that have relatively little variation.
This is a good album that I'm going to continue to listen to, but it's not an album that I can give my full attention to. Which is not necessarily a bad thing.
Unfortunately I just was not feeling this album much. Too much lo-fi for my liking which made it difficult for me to get a feel for the instrumentation as a whole. Even the songs that weren't heavy on the lo-fi (Famous Prophets as an example), I couldn't get into because of the vocal style. His voice just seems very muffled and isn't a style I've been able to get into in the past either.
ReplyDeleteI only gave it one full listen and then re-listened to a couple other tracks, mostly because I couldn't get into it and I know you really wanted us to get passed the production but I had a hard time doing so. In the end I guess it just comes down to personal tastes so it's nothing against Toledo personally, it's just not a sound I like as a whole.
I was very pleasantly surprised by this album. With all you've talked about him, and all of the lo-fi and emo labels I hear you throw around (not necessarily for Car Seat Headrest in particular, just in general), I had pigeonholed this album as something else. It's lo-fi, certainly, but he's got an expansive sound for the genre and I do appreciate his songwriting. The comparison I heard the most was The Strokes, weirdly enough. Kind of the same scratchy powerful guitars and the effects on the singer's voices are pretty similar.
ReplyDeleteFor such an introverted guy I wasn't expecting such energetic extroverted songs (no idea what he's saying as always, but the music is extroverted in a way). Good pick Nora! I'll check out the rest of his discog.
Favorite songs:
Beach Life-In-Death
Nervous Young Inhumans
Cute Thing
Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)