Not every album has to be groundbreaking guys, this might not have been the most inventive record, but I had a blast listening to it and the dorkest smile
"if you want to listen to a guy have an emotional breakdown listen to this record" ~anthony memetano caught my attention, great record to listen to when you're sad and or hating yourself, and the lyrics really cut deep. P.S. imo drunk drivers uses drunk driving as a metaphor for going through life while empty and confused and blindly stumbling around life, possibly causing yourself and others harm
I know it's been five years since you posted this comment, but I agree! I think that Drunk Driving is used as a metaphor for self-destructive behaviour.
I can't wait till the lyrics mellow out as he grows. Don't get me wrong, I can totally relate, I think most can but it's not something you can just bust out anywhere. I love the delivery and the tone but I'm interested in the future. Lyrically, the music is an aquired taste, not that that's bad just, you know, not good for sharing when most people around you are regular. I think he's well on his way to clearing his mind and the attention and support would probably help a heap to achieve that personal/real/shareable balance. There's some straight jams on this album and I feel it'll only get better. Not by force but naturally.
My favorite song on the album is undeniably The Ballad of the Costa Concordia, and I may be a minority here, but I actually dig Unforgiving Girl and don't really like Not Just What I Needed so much.
John Cook That doesn’t mean they can’t somehow be related. I don’t know what Toledo’s reasoning for naming them so similarly was but its not unreasonable that they could have some type of conceptual connection
Teens of Style = teens who are trying to be cool (Will when he wrote the original songs for Teens of Style) Teens of Denial = adults who are rejecting maturity (Will on Teens of Denial)
Actually the generic idea of naming this band 'Car Seat Headrest', is what led me to check them out. I don't see many artists with obscure objects as they're band name, and it made me curious.
If I remember correctly Will got this name from when he'd park his car out away from everyone and play songs in the back seat as if the headrest was the audience
According to Will himself it's because he was more comfortable recording vocals in his car, locked away and alone than in other places. That's why a lot of the album covers of the earlier albums are just interiors of cars.
I've been in love with Twin Fantasy so much that even though I've probably tired out my ears on it, I'm still hesistant to fully immerse myself in Teens of Denial.
0:10 twitter.com/search?f=users&vertical=default&q=memes&src=typd Wow, he's right! Edit: Also searched up Melon, and guess what, his account was there too! twitter.com/search?f=users&vertical=default&q=melon&src=typd
As a reviewer he has to display his criticisms of the albums lmfao. I’d say it’s better, because a reviewer is supposed to pick out the bad bits mostly tbh
Now that Olivia Rodrigo is getting wide spread critical acclaim for making the teenage girl version of CSH. This is the most influential rock album of the 2010s.
Really enjoyed the record. Have you listened to any of his bandcamp-era output? Twin Fantasy is honestly a 10/10 record in my opinion, but it might be swayed by nostalgia/teen angst.
never heard of this band before. and I completely agree that the band wears there influences proudly on there sleeves but I have never heard an album that has 6-11min songs that isn't super indie experimental. this is pretty much the only album I've ever heard that has really long, really deep, really "proper music fan" type music that is also super accessible and poppy!
I found Teens of Style through your review of it last year, and after listening through it immediately went to buy it on Bandcamp. I was really excited for this follow-up, and I like it even better as a cohesive record than Teens of Style. Glad you liked it just as much, Fuzzthony Headtano.
This might easily be my favourite album of 2016. The songwriting is so good. The lyrics are whitty and funny and in some ways I can relate a lot to what he's saying. In some songs he uses very interesting chord progressions wich I miss in most "bedroom pop lo-fi indie rock" songs. I'd give it a strong 9. You agree?
This is my favorite album of the year (so far). I know there are other albums this year that you could say is more "fine" or artistic or whatever (Blackstar & Skeleton Tree come to mind) but I'm biased because ToD hits close to home for me. The whole album is about the internal struggle of growing up, taking on responsibility, finding out who your real friends are and experimenting with drugs. This actually released the very week of my high school graduation, so it pretty much nailed how I was feeling, and still am feeling to an extent.
I'm so glad you at least mentioned Connect the Dots, I thought it was the best song on the album and I'm surprised no other reviews even mentioned the track.
The muffled vocals of teens of style vs the more direct and loud vocals of teens of denial is the sisterly relationship between the album. The teens of style know nobody is listening and just want to make art that makes people feel good. The teens of denial swear they have a voice and that their voice and their pain matters, which it ultimately doesn’t. Style in the shit is accepting the shit and rolling with it. Denial in the shit is not accepting it and instead trying to make it better when it’ll never be better.
I just discovered these guys. I think they fit well with Matador records. It's hard to say how they stack up against some Matador legends like Guided by Voices, Pavemen, Yo La Tengo, and Sleater Kinney. I still give them props for being pretty original sounding at a day and age when so much runs the risk of sounding like a re-tread of fill in the blank. The album has a lot of soul and good lyrics.
It always makes me curious that people think albums are necessarily inherently a "narrative" story about the musicians themselves as opposed to a well-sequenced collection woven together from a mix of their thoughts, outlooks, feelings, memories, stories they've heard or made up themselves, etc. Like, not every album is a concept album, lol?
I feel like the jump is because of the fact that the last album was a collection of remastered songs from earlier albums. The best way to see his progression is to go in order from Twin Fantasy to Nervous Young Man to How To Leave Town then listen to Teens of Style and Teens of Denial.
Mate, Teens of Style is mostly a compilation of Carseat songs pre Matador Records. I think the only actual relation with both albums are the names. For the ones interested in Carseat, hear the albums that came before, specially Twin Fantasy, now that's a beauty.
