Car Seat Headrest album review except we get more and more drunk until the entire thing is incoherent

Note: This review was inspired by The Niche Blog’s drunk review of Twin Fantasy

Making a Door Less Open (MADLO) is Will Toledo’s 15th (?) album and maybe third studio album under the name Car Seat Headrest, selected due to the abnormal amount of time Toledo spent writing music in his car. His latest album was the first in since 2016’s widely acclaimed Teens of Denial, released on the storied Matador Records. It followed a bildungsroman narrative arc, which was cool, because he was very angry at society and clearly in denial about how fucking gay he was. 2018 saw a re-produced version of 2011’s Twin Fantasy , a record which captured his collegiate examination of sexuality. He is gay and he was in college. Therefore, the album was collegiate and sexuality-relatedsexuality related. Around that time, he also went to parties and did drugs with his friends. Some of them did too many drugs, so there were mixed experiences; however, they made for fruitful musical inspiration.

MADLO vaguely references sSociety, but it’s no OK Computer by Radiohead. I know this because I dated a guy who was obsessed with RadioheadRadiohead, he was also an incel and a realist?????? SO anyway, I just wanted to say that. OK Computer is good album nonetheless—I know that the word nonetheless shouldn’t be at the end of a sentence, like, grammatically, but I don’t care.

Next, I want to talk about Will Toledo’s separation between his celebrity status and the nobody he used to be. So, who Will is—he really hates himself, like, he really fucking hates himself. It’s at the centre of his musical appeal/career, says Anders. MADLO is the first album after his outrageous Teens of Denial success, so Matador was like, “You better make something good,” or “we will give you more money so now we can let you loose creatively because we know what you’re capable of.” But he wasn’t, and lowkey I think this messy, DIY aesthetic was on purpose. Because of all the $$$$, there was pressure to reach wider commercial audiences.

Will Toledo also likes memes. So much so, in fact, that he has a side project called 1 Trait Danger, it’s like umm…. hHe has 1 Trait in a gas mask and a cartoon dog, so you know it’s cute. He’s also a furry—this is the joke on the Internet about him—like I follow a meme page called @sadboicentral and the account jokes about his furriness so much that he blocked them on Insgataram so you neknow it’s a big deal already. lIke, I mean, this man lives off of ironic humour and EVENE HE couldn’t deal iwht it. Like damn, she must’ve pissed this man off.

In 1 Trait Danger’s second album, the CSH crew mocks Coachella and Pitchfork for being stupid and elitist which is honestly valid but idk if Will Toeldo is any better. The man went to William and Mary in Virginia or some podunk town in New England, so you already know. Anyway, the 1 Trait album subverts these expectations by mocking CSH’s parallel headliners at Coachella like the XX and Mac DeMarco. (Fucking hell, I hate Mc DeMarco what a pompous ass.).

Toledo’s 1 Trait persona didn’t age well because he wore a gas mask to hide his face to separate himself from the fan base and hist true self, whatever that may be .I feel like it’s quite neurotic, though, and that’s why I’m in love with him. I am also neuoriteic abut that meansk we get a lot of shit done, unlike some of you scrubs at this universitu. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Toledo said himself that he regretted having chosen a gas mask to signify his new alter ego.

One of the early singles, Can’t Cool Me Down presented an interesting initial notion for where Toledo might take his sound—it married a newfound love of drum kits and synths with familiar CSH melodic turns. we both like it, but the later electro-rock combinations get worse. Another album highlight is the song Martin. Martin is a very gay song; it’s about someone’s boyfriend named Justin. Prior to writing this review, I read a Japanese interview with Will saying htat this song is acutally abouf ta childenres’ book called… MS Frizzle and the NIMH. I don’t know what the NIMH is per se, but I do NHI in Japan Is a Television network???? I think?? Haruki Murakami mentions the NHI a lot as something post-modernist, late stage capitalism surveillance operation.

I don’t what ander said – oh yea, Will Toledo studied Enlgish at his Nnew England College where he was Peak Liberal Arts student. So that explaisn a lot about him as a person: sexuality, intense vocabulary, mid 20s angst and hatred for Society. The lyric “Justin, I’ll come find you” means that he’ll find Justin because he loves him. :”((((((((

Beth thinks she likes Hollywood , but she really doesn’t. Yes, it has a degree of superficial angst, and that’s sort of compelling. Naturally, Will Toledo has never liked The System. But despite claming that Hollywood “ “makes me want to puke”, we’re never quite sure why. Toledo’s delivered far more cohesive social commentary talking about sex in the suburbs. Hollywood is loud and angry though, if that’s your thing. It certainly doesn’t appear to be his.

Anders is wrong because he clearly doesn’t understand art. Reasons why it’s good: 1) screaming 2) yelling 3) talking about puking. Plus, the guitar riffs are amazing and it’s just a fun song, very Teens of Denial-esque.

I actually listened to Twin Fantasy (2011) on vinyl while collaborating on this review. It made me think. Will Toledo knows his way around a rock song. He rides waves of doubt and fleeting catharsis. It sounds vital. MADLO struggles because it doesn’t ambush the listener with the same emotional investment. Nothing grabs you by the scruff of the collar like Bodys or Nervous Young Inhumans. Which is strange, because Will Toledo is no less angsty. He’s probably angstier than he’s ever been, but just can’t quite put his finger on it. Nonetheless, whatever the merits of this particular record, the world will be starved of good music if Will Toledo gets too content.

I liked a lot of these songs as singles, but as an album, there is no cohesive vision. I feel like Will just made a bunch ofs sogns and decided this was the right thing to do ‘cause you have to put your ideas somewhere, even if it’s poorly executed. This is how I feel writing opinion essays, I just write stream of consioucsness style under I have seomth8ig scrappy enough to form a real idea or opinion. This is a strength, in my opinion, because I exhibit critical thinknigs,, at least to a certain extent, and I think this is one of my greatest strengths. Thank you everyone. <33333 Hope you all listen to Car Seat Headrest because hes truly one of the greatest artists from our generation (the younger end of Generation Y).