CD of The Week

Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars (Matador)

The discography of Car Seat Headrest has a unique shape informed by the evolving circumstances of its singular leader and founder, vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Will Toledo. Beginning as a DIY solo project for Toledo, eight homemade, full-length albums were released on Bandcamp in a three-year period prior to the 2015 breakthrough compilation of re-recordings, Teens of Denial, which was the first album professionally recorded and released through legendary label Matador Records. In stark contrast to that prolific pace, The Scholars is just the band’s (now a four-piece rather than just Toledo) third album of new material in the last decade and the first since 2020’s electronic-infused misfire, Making a Door Less Open. Much of that five-year delay unfortunately has been due to Toledo’s health issues (he has dealt with Long COVID), but the content of The Scholars, a 70-minute rock opera with an illustrated libretto for the vinyl release, could not have been created without ample amounts of time and care. Luckily, that attention can be shared by the listener, as the album's ambition and songcraft impress and thrill throughout the nine epic tracks.

The storyline of The Scholars, which follows supernaturally gifted students at fictional Parnassus University, is ultimately on the impenetrable side, especially in the digital version lacking the libretto. While the lore is there to unpack if you want, the album’s pleasures are clear just from the hypnotizing music alone. Toledo’s status as an anthem deliverer remains elite and that begins with opener “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)” which opens with a duet between a haunting piano line and skittering drums before a wash of guitars builds to a powerful refrain of the parenthetical phrase. Like much of the band’s best material, it combines the grandeur of The Who and Springsteen with the skewed perspective and sound of lower-budget indie. Most of the first half of the record operates in this powerful, hooky lane (except for the lovely, acoustic “Lady Gay Approximately”) with the self-referential “The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man)” possessing a driving rhythm and “woo ooh ooh” background vocals and “Equals” containing a 90s alt-rock, loud-quiet-loud tension and searching lyrics about facing something “too raw to talk about with the distance that I’d like.”

However, much of the ink about The Scholars will be spilled in reference to the trilogy of tracks in the middle of the album; “Gethsemane,” “Reality,” and “Planet Desperation. The three songs combined reach almost 40 minutes and all have multi-part structures. “Gethsemane” is the only one where every element works as the expansiveness of the song never overwhelms the palpable melodies and intriguing lyrics of each short section. “Reality” and “Planet Desperation” are more inconsistent and the decision for Toledo to share vocal duties with guitarist Ethan Ives and drummer Andrew Katz is unsuccessful. You feel the length on both songs before the poppy but tightly wound closer “True/False Lover” ends the album on a strong note.

Car Seat Headrest’s decision to make a rock opera is not surprising given Toledo’s affinity for the greats of the 70s, but that doesn’t dull the freshness of listening to an exciting, self-consciously “big” album in today’s era of algorithmic playlists. The storyline may be hard to follow (but the same could be said of Tommy and American Idiot), but the strengths of the hooks and riffs are glaringly obvious.

Car Seat Headrest will be performing at the Mann Center Skyline Stage with The Lemon Twigs on Friday, September 12th.

Review by Sol