What is it about teenage angst that works so well in music? Yes, it's relatable as hell when you're the same age, because everyone friggin gets it, and for a while later it will probably still hit you pretty hard in the feels, but shouldn't it start sounding childish and stupid sooner or later? I for one was certainly expecting that I one day would be able to look back at that time and laugh at all those silly feelings. Well, I'm now 28, and that day still hasn't come. And it's not just me - this theme is as huge in popular music as a good comic-of-age story is in literature and film. There's something about how overwhelming it is, how all-encompassing those emotions are. You just want it all to go away, and you just want it to last forever. Whether or not the listeners remember that themselves doesn't really matter, because it shines through in the music. And it's so damn real. Now a solid amount of years past my own adolescence, I still feel like nothing realer has happened, and probably never will. Some people my age freak out about that. I think I'm fine with it, but it sure is an amazing form of escapism to put on some Car Seat Headrest once in a while.
Car Seat Headrest started in 2010 as the solo project of then 17-year-old Will Toledo. He recorded and self-released about ten albums over the next three years. And during this time, he's angsty as fuck. He's growing up gay and different and lonely and sad. He gradually gained a bit of a cult following, as he gradually got better at both recording and songwriting, developing his signature style of what can best be described as low-fi prog punk. His songs are long and meandering, often over ten minutes long - quite an anomaly in the indie rock scene. And they're honest as hell. Like looking in a too-bright mirror when you're hungover. So he got a record deal in 2015, got together a proper band, released a compilation of his Bandcamp years, then in 2016 got his definite breakthrough with the album Teens of Denial. This is the point where I jumped on the wagon.
So now he's at this weird place where he's sitting on all this material literally recorded in the back of a car (hence the band name), which he's actually quite proud of, which most people have never heard. So rather than put out a brand new album, he goes back and re-records one of his old ones. It's a weird-ass move, but seeing where he's coming from, I kinda get it. He's got the budget, the equipment, the bandmates and the skill now that he didn't have back in 2011. He hasn't stopped making art and sold out; he's giving his art the format it deserves. Besides, Teens of Denial was probably his last teenage album. He's now 26, and any new music is going to be coming from a decidedly different place than whatever created those ten manic creations. So giving us Twin Fantasy again, commonly accepted as the best Car Seat Headrest album (I wouldn't know, I've barely dipped my toes into those old recording), makes a lot of sense. The result is such a definite statement of that time, it has a timeless quality that the self-made albums just couldn't have.
Thus, we're in the unique situation now that there exists two different versions of Twin Fantasy. They're subtitled (Mirror to Mirror) (the 2011 version) and (Face to Face) (the 2018 version). Fans are biting each other's necks off arguing over which is better, which tracks were ruined, which changes should never have happened, whether the whole thing should have happened, whether you're a true fan unless you like the old lo-fi stuff. I don't care about any of that shit. Twin Fantasy was an entirely new album for me, and only on a few occasions have I gone back and listened to the old versions. It's hard to rate one over the other. There are minor variations in many of the songs, so I kind of get the confused fans, but it's a pointless exercise. So I simply took (Face to Face) at, ehem, face value.
And it's an amazing dive into a messed up teenager's mind. It's a stressful place to be, and the album is almost 80 minutes long, so rarely do I do it all in one sitting. Specifically, track two is the 13-minute monster "Beach life in death", which kind of overshadows the entire midsection of all the album. But I urge you, at least stay for the first ten minutes. If you've gotten to "I! Don't! Want! To! Go! In! SAAANE!" and found out this isn' your cup of tea - fine. If you are into it - stay tuned for the equally thrilling "Bodys" and "Cute thing", and melt in pleasure every time a snippet from previously in the album is reused. That's such a hella good effect, and Toledo uses it in just the right amount, whether it's inverting "Stop smoking (We love you)" to "keep smoking, we love you", or reviving the outro from "Beach life in death" in one of the countless sections of the 16-minute penultimate track "Famous prophets (Stars)". Other memorable moments include the lyric in "Cute thing" about the stammering drunk trying to tell him how good that shit was, delivered hilariously deadpan; the looping three-against-four rhythm in the heartwarming outro of "Sober to death"; and the charming "Is it the chorus yet? No, it's just the building of the verse, so when the chorus comes it'll be more rewarding." during "Bodys". Speaking of the choruses, some of them do indeed sound a bit too much like an angsty teenager writing a generic chorus - but some of them are really good. There are enough of the really good ones here that you'll experience no lack of catchy hooks and singalong
The lyrics of the album revolve around a short-lived relationship, and many of them have been rewritten for this new version, reflecting Toledo's changed view on the whole deal. Quite a unique and weird situation to be in. I won't go into detail. But closing track "Twin fantasy (Those boys)" is left completely unchanged, and takes an odd third-person view that paints the relationship as a piece of sepia-perfect nostalgia. "They just want to be one / Walk off into the sun / Not kissing / Not fucking / They're just having fun fun fun fun fun" is probably the sentiment best captured on the album cover. The outro of "When I come back you'll still be here / When you come back I'll still be here" loops on and on, and I read that the vinyl version ends on a locked groove, with the last few seconds looping endlessly, allowing the fantasy to live on as long as you want.
Someone with too much time on their hands should dub SKAM season 3 using only Car Seat Headrest songs on the soundtrack. There's literally a mood on Twin Fantasy for every scene.
Best tracks: "Beach life in death", "Bodys", "Twin fantasy (those boys)", "My boy (Twin fantasy)"
 |
| This album cover is absolutely wonderful. 10/10. |
Car Seat Headrest started in 2010 as the solo project of then 17-year-old Will Toledo. He recorded and self-released about ten albums over the next three years. And during this time, he's angsty as fuck. He's growing up gay and different and lonely and sad. He gradually gained a bit of a cult following, as he gradually got better at both recording and songwriting, developing his signature style of what can best be described as low-fi prog punk. His songs are long and meandering, often over ten minutes long - quite an anomaly in the indie rock scene. And they're honest as hell. Like looking in a too-bright mirror when you're hungover. So he got a record deal in 2015, got together a proper band, released a compilation of his Bandcamp years, then in 2016 got his definite breakthrough with the album Teens of Denial. This is the point where I jumped on the wagon.
So now he's at this weird place where he's sitting on all this material literally recorded in the back of a car (hence the band name), which he's actually quite proud of, which most people have never heard. So rather than put out a brand new album, he goes back and re-records one of his old ones. It's a weird-ass move, but seeing where he's coming from, I kinda get it. He's got the budget, the equipment, the bandmates and the skill now that he didn't have back in 2011. He hasn't stopped making art and sold out; he's giving his art the format it deserves. Besides, Teens of Denial was probably his last teenage album. He's now 26, and any new music is going to be coming from a decidedly different place than whatever created those ten manic creations. So giving us Twin Fantasy again, commonly accepted as the best Car Seat Headrest album (I wouldn't know, I've barely dipped my toes into those old recording), makes a lot of sense. The result is such a definite statement of that time, it has a timeless quality that the self-made albums just couldn't have.
Thus, we're in the unique situation now that there exists two different versions of Twin Fantasy. They're subtitled (Mirror to Mirror) (the 2011 version) and (Face to Face) (the 2018 version). Fans are biting each other's necks off arguing over which is better, which tracks were ruined, which changes should never have happened, whether the whole thing should have happened, whether you're a true fan unless you like the old lo-fi stuff. I don't care about any of that shit. Twin Fantasy was an entirely new album for me, and only on a few occasions have I gone back and listened to the old versions. It's hard to rate one over the other. There are minor variations in many of the songs, so I kind of get the confused fans, but it's a pointless exercise. So I simply took (Face to Face) at, ehem, face value.
 |
| 2 x Will Toledo in the "Nervous young inhumans" music video. They're not huge on the visuals thing. |
And it's an amazing dive into a messed up teenager's mind. It's a stressful place to be, and the album is almost 80 minutes long, so rarely do I do it all in one sitting. Specifically, track two is the 13-minute monster "Beach life in death", which kind of overshadows the entire midsection of all the album. But I urge you, at least stay for the first ten minutes. If you've gotten to "I! Don't! Want! To! Go! In! SAAANE!" and found out this isn' your cup of tea - fine. If you are into it - stay tuned for the equally thrilling "Bodys" and "Cute thing", and melt in pleasure every time a snippet from previously in the album is reused. That's such a hella good effect, and Toledo uses it in just the right amount, whether it's inverting "Stop smoking (We love you)" to "keep smoking, we love you", or reviving the outro from "Beach life in death" in one of the countless sections of the 16-minute penultimate track "Famous prophets (Stars)". Other memorable moments include the lyric in "Cute thing" about the stammering drunk trying to tell him how good that shit was, delivered hilariously deadpan; the looping three-against-four rhythm in the heartwarming outro of "Sober to death"; and the charming "Is it the chorus yet? No, it's just the building of the verse, so when the chorus comes it'll be more rewarding." during "Bodys". Speaking of the choruses, some of them do indeed sound a bit too much like an angsty teenager writing a generic chorus - but some of them are really good. There are enough of the really good ones here that you'll experience no lack of catchy hooks and singalong
The lyrics of the album revolve around a short-lived relationship, and many of them have been rewritten for this new version, reflecting Toledo's changed view on the whole deal. Quite a unique and weird situation to be in. I won't go into detail. But closing track "Twin fantasy (Those boys)" is left completely unchanged, and takes an odd third-person view that paints the relationship as a piece of sepia-perfect nostalgia. "They just want to be one / Walk off into the sun / Not kissing / Not fucking / They're just having fun fun fun fun fun" is probably the sentiment best captured on the album cover. The outro of "When I come back you'll still be here / When you come back I'll still be here" loops on and on, and I read that the vinyl version ends on a locked groove, with the last few seconds looping endlessly, allowing the fantasy to live on as long as you want.
Someone with too much time on their hands should dub SKAM season 3 using only Car Seat Headrest songs on the soundtrack. There's literally a mood on Twin Fantasy for every scene.
Best tracks: "Beach life in death", "Bodys", "Twin fantasy (those boys)", "My boy (Twin fantasy)"
No comments:
Post a Comment