Car Seat Headrest performing a live show at “The Showbox” on October 12, 2018. Photo by David Lee/Wikimedia Commons.
Car Seat Headrest is an indie rock band that used to be a solo act by multi-instrumentalist Will Toledo with music made with charming lo-fi production and extremely personal subject material. However, after the album of re-recorded songs, “Teens of Style,” the solo act became a full band, and the production quality became comparatively higher fidelity. Change is a huge part of growing up, and if there’s anything that can symbolize that, it’s the 2018 re-recording of 2011’s “Twin Fantasy.”
The 2018 re-recording — subtitled “Face to Face” — is Car Seat Headrest’s most popular album for good reason. It shows that Toledo had great songwriting even when he was just some teen making music about his depression. However, with a full band, proper recording quality and a mature mind, the sound and messaging of the album was enhanced.
The twin albums complement each other, giving two similar yet different perspectives on the concept of love, sexuality and most notably, obsession exacerbated by mental illness. The album cover, for example, depicts two naked anthropomorphic dogs hugging, becoming one with each other. Despite how crudely drawn it is, it’s iconic and fits the theme of the album, codependency, perfectly.
“My Boy – Twin Fantasy” is the intro to the album. The “boy” Toledo sings about on this album is assumed to be the artist Cate Wurtz, who identified as male when the original “Mirror to Mirror” version was written.
The song itself is simple and ballad-like, highlighting the complicated nature of this relationship with the lyric, “My boy, we don’t see each other much, it’ll take some time, but somewhere down the line, we won’t be alone.” It only gets more complicated from here.
“Beach Life-In-Death” comes up next. There are many memorable and impactful lines in this 13-minute song. Some of my favorites being: “I pretended I was drunk when I came out to my friends, I never came out to my friends. We were all on Skype and I laughed and I changed the subject,” “It should be called anti-depression as a friend of mine suggested because it’s not the sadness that hurts you, it’s the brain’s reaction against it,” “I don’t want to go insane, I don’t want to have schizophrenia,” “Your ears perked up, I perked up when your ears perked up” and “The ocean washed over your grave, the ocean washed open your grave.”
These lyrics are incredibly effective and mean so much to me. This is a great song to use when introducing someone to Car Seat Headrest.
“Stop Smoking (We Love You)” is a simple interlude-like song, but it is also incredibly important to the themes of the album. The song is a plea for Toledo’s love interest to stop smoking because, in his words, “We don’t want you to die.”
“Sober to Death” is also a super important song for the story of the album. The lyrics “You can text me when punching mattresses gets old” and “I want to hear you going psycho, if you’re going psycho I wanna hear” resonated a lot with how I love.
“Nervous Young Inhumans” uses a synth reminiscent of that on shoegaze band Panchiko’s finished version of “Gwen Everest.” The monologue at the end reminds me of when I write under my state of psychosis with anger seeping into words and the loose ideas behind them driving the narrative.
“Bodys” is certainly a high on the album, simultaneously being a cute, introverted love song and hypothetical gay party song with the pseudo-drunk lyrics like “Those are you got some nice shoulders.” The only thing hindering the track is the outro by the drummer, 1 Trait Danger.
“Cute Thing” has Toledo singing about lighting his lover’s cigarette, going against the rhetoric of “Stop Smoking.” There is a tribute to Frank Ocean’s vocal prowess and James Brown’s presence on stage, and then there’s a synth backing later in the song that sounds great.
The lyric “Healthy minds make sexy bodies” is humorous considering how Toledo is very vocal about his mental illness. “I would sleep naked next to you naked” is such an awkward line but it’s still iconic, funny and representative of the lust Toledo has for his lover.
“High to Death” flips “Stop Smoking” on its head with Toledo singing “Keep smoking, I love you,” which shows how Toledo would sacrifice morals for companionship.
“Famous Prophets (Stars),” the album’s 16-minute magnum opus, begins with “Apologies to future mes and yous” and references “Beach Life-in-Death” with the lyric “The ocean washed over your grave, the ocean washed open your grave.”
In “Twin Fantasy (Those Boys),” Toledo detaches from the narrative to remind the audience that these lyrics represent a past version of him and his love interest and that they live separately from the real world. He moved on.
Car Seat Headrest is near and dear to my heart as well as my girlfriend’s. I tread the fine line between adoration and obsession. Will Toledo is proof I’m not alone in this complex yet addictive struggle. Thank you for sharing something so vulnerable with us, Mr. Toledo.