[rating=9.00]
After gaining considerable critical acclaim and picking up new fans with 2016’s Teens of Denial, the band’s second album released under a record label, Car Seat Headrest follows up with the effort with a re-issue of its best self-released album, Twin Fantasy.
Originally released only on Bandcamp in 2011, Twin Fantasy has been painstakingly re-recorded. Though the album still retains a DIY aura, its recording quality is much better than the more lo-fi Bandcamp releases, some of which were literally recorded in the backseat of frontman Will Toledo’s car. The guitars are crisper, the basses deeper, and Toledo’s voice more emotive and resonant.
While Teens of Denial was a breakthrough for the band, Twin Fantasy is Car Seat Headrest’s magnum opus. It is epic in scale, with ten songs that combine lo-fi pop aesthetics with loud alternative rock edginess, progressive structures, and Toledo’s inventive wordplay.
The minimalist “My Boy” opens the album with Seth Dalby’s slow bass groove and Toledo’s scratchy voice singing of a budding paternal relationship, or at least the hope of one. “My boy, we don’t see each other much. It’ll take some time, but somewhere down the line we won’t be alone,” he repeats as though trying to convince himself.
The strength of Car Seat Headrest is in the dynamics. Twin Fantasy features myriad abrupt shifts in intensity, loudness, speed, and style. Lo-fi pop melodies give way to crunching guitar riffs. Toledo’s lyrics shift from introspective to ironic and even his voice teeters between disaffected and emotionally charged.
In “Sober to Death,” the band has so much fun with dynamics that the song is almost too stimulating. “Good stories are bad lives,” Toledo sings as the song transitions from finger-picked acoustic crooner to pop rock anthem. “We were wrecks before we crashed into each other,” Toledo sings over loud distorted guitars in the chorus. After the last chorus, the track ping pongs from loud to soft, acoustic to distorted, fast to slow, all syncopated with the repeated line “don’t worry; you and me won’t be alone no more.”
The grandiose 16-minute “Famous Prophets” finds Toledo examining a relationship that seems doomed to fail. Careening between a brooding ambiance or piano ballad and loud, aggressive rock, Toledo starts out nostalgic, before turning the reminiscence on its head. “I remember you; you had a body,” he sings. “You had hands and arms and legs and et cetera.” After repeating imagery of death (“the ocean washed over your grave”), the song ends with a woman reciting a portion of St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. “Now we see only reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face,” she says. “Now I know in part; then I shall know fully as I am fully known.” Interestingly, the previous recording of this song ended with Toledo reciting a different passage from the Bible, a verse from 1 Kings about the prophet Elijah encountering God.
Throughout Twin Fantasy, Car Seat Headrest shows an ability to meld distinctly different styles into its own amalgamation of influences, often within the same song. “Beach Life in Death” splices surf rock, punk, and melodic pop. “Nervous Young Inhumans” adds synth-pop flair to its sing-along choruses. With its upbeat groove and catchy riff, “Bodys” is the album’s most radio-friendly track, something that Toledo mocks. “Is it the chorus yet?” he asks after the first verse. “No, it’s just the building of the verse, so when the chorus comes it will be more rewarding.” His prediction was correct.
Released by Matador records, this version of Twin Fantasy expertly captures everything Car Seat Headrest does well, with better recordings, and in some case rewritings, of the band’s quirky but powerful blend of low-fi and hard rock.
