Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

In an unexpected turn of events, Car Seat Headrest makes a Rock Opera!

And to be frank, I think it’s about damn time they did. Car Seat Headrest has always created albums and songs with a conceptual edge, whether it be the loss of innocence and troubles of growing into maturity on Teens of Denial, or the yearning and anxiety around committing to a fictional relationship on the fan-acclaimed Twin Fantasy.

Evolving past the days as a solo Bandcamp artist putting out Lofi Indie projects slipping under the radar, the full-formed band consisting of frontman Will Toledo, guitarist Ethan Ives, bass guitarist Seth Dalby, and drummer Andrew Katz, has been pushing the envelope within the Indie Alternative scene. The “band” being together for over a decade has not only helped breathe new lifeblood into some older, unfurnished material beloved by day-one fans, but also reinvented their newer, polished sound and technical ability, while stretching the boundaries of what Car Seat Headrest can tackle, both instrumentally and thematically.

Now, I would be remiss if I didn’t say I’m not huge when it comes to Rock Operas. When I saw that the band’s first studio project in five years would be a Rock Opera, I was excited that they’d be heading in this direction, but had a healthy spoonful of concerns. Don’t get me wrong, there are some beloved classics within the genre that I still return to, be it The Who’s Quadrophenia or MCR’s The Black Parade. Going into these types of concept projects, the main concern is whether the plot will be as intriguing as the compositions surrounding it. Do they equally complement each other, or does the music detract from the narrative?

In the case of this new Car Seat Headrest album, nine tracks clock in at 70 minutes of runtime, and each piece presents a different perspective of the scenery they attempt to illustrate. Some core characters become motifs for the rest of the project, but each song switches between narrators, a choice that fans may or may not get behind. This loose-fitting story structure gives each track its spotlight, so if you're listening just for the music and not the plot, you’d still have an enjoyable time.

However, on The Scholars, incorporating the overarching narrative into various sections of the album seems more like an arduous task than a fulfilling one. This is an overly ambitious undertaking for the band. What they set up in vision and storytelling, they lack in execution and clear progression. And this is my complaint with the album: it’s like they know what they’re reaching for, and yet the ways they achieve that goal are sometimes less than satisfactory, especially on some of the longer cuts.

I don’t want to get too much into the lyrical content of this new project or even attempt to analyze and connect all the plot points. That would just take too much time and space for both of us. The music itself and the way each track is sequenced with the others are pretty hit or miss. While it may not be the weakest sounding album instrumentally or performance-wise, it’s by far their most disjointed run of songs yet.

This album does an effective job at setting the scene on the opening track “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You),” which was one of the teasers to the project, and while the subtext might be tough to understand if your new to the Car Seat Headrest cannon, they set their stage in a way that intrudoces the fictional academy, the themes surrounding each character, and emerges with one of their strongest choruses in years.

I think this track, along with another of the teasers, “The Catastrophe (Good Luck with That, Man),” might be two of the more accessible and instantaneous tracks the band has prepared in this new era. This one in particular is a self-referential commentary on Will’s journey into starting a band through the eyes of another fictional character, sharing a similar emotional background and ambitions to make these scenarios more grounded in reality.

My problem with The Scholars is in the sequencing, both within the context of the album and within the songs themselves. The transition from the first two tracks into “Lady Gay Approximately” almost felt like I was listening to the band between two different albums entirely. Or the jump from “The Catastrophe” to “Equals,” a half-baked slow burner about a ‘cancel culture-type’ scenario between two classmates, feels rushed and continues to throw off the progression of the album.

The longer songs that start the second half of the project, especially, which were the moments I was looking forward to the most, lack the punch, energy, and cohesiveness that I expected. I find “Gethsemane” to be the only exception to the rule, detailing a rugged and tortured relationship between one student and an evil deity who tries to put her under his spell. It’s an enthralling 11-minute piece with three different choruses and moves at a steady and breakneck pace. The “You can love again, if you try again” refrain at the end got in my head for days after I heard it. Certainly one of my favorite moments in the band’s catalogue.

I unfortunately cannot give the same accolades for the song “Reality,” which features vocals from guitarist Ethan Ives for the majority of the tune. I’ve personally not been huge into his vocal inclusions on past projects, but the low crooning delivery doesn’t do wonders for me. And the parts where Will joins Ives and takes the track into rugged territory are more distracting than enveloping.

It even pains me to say that “Planet Desperation,” their longest song to date at over 19 minutes, is the biggest offender on the album. The four-part structure of the track that the band roadmaps presents some of their clunkiest progressions and stringing together of melodies yet. Everything from the album up into this point coalesces musically into a mish-mosh of ideas that I’m struggling to get behind. My interest peaks and then it dies down at the most unexpected moments. And the re-introduction of the “You can love again” refrain at the end feels nothing short of maddening. I get that it wraps up these lines in a fashion that Car Seat Headrest can only pull off, but man, these progressions leave much more to be desired.

Aside from the short outro that ends the album, I’ll admit wanted to like this album more than I did. I fully believed that the band has it in them to make a catchy and memorable rock opera, and honestly, I still believe they can pull it off.

For all of the album’s pitfalls, I am glad they are still experimenting with progressive rock and overly ambitious song structures. Don’t get me wrong, this is a decent project and is an overall stronger representation of the band chemistry than their last album. There are some great ideas presented here, and if the songs were only sequenced in a way that didn’t feel like sonic whiplash, this could’ve been as classic as Twin Fantasy.

Maybe I’m in the minority on this one, as I’m sure diehard fans are feasting all over this album and will be for the coming months. As it stands, the focus is there, the characters and plotlines all serve their purpose, but musically lacks the execution that I would’ve wanted from the band.

Favorite Tracks: CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You), Devereaux, The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man), Gethsemane

Least Favorite: Planet Desperation

6.5/10