![]() The song features a new ending, citing “My Boy” in a transcendent outro and ending with a spoken bible verse. He also ditches the vocal distortion and executes the most significant lyrical rewrite on the album. Toledo showcases much more dynamic range upon re-recording, starting softer and growing more sharply and intensely. “Famous Prophets (Stars)”, given the parenthetical “(Minds)” in 2011’s version, was extended from ten minutes to a 16-minute behemoth. One of the most notable transformations is in the album’s second-to-last song. The best moments in Twin Fantasy, from the complicated narrative and musical suspense of “Beach Life-in-Death” to the incorporation of “Sunburned Shirts”, originally found on My Back Is Killing Me Baby, into “Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)”, are all improved upon in Toledo’s second attempt, finally free from the limitations of self-releasing. The original Twin Fantasy, containing some of my favorite Car Seat Headrest songs such as “Sober To Death” and “Twin Fantasy (Those Boys)”, was always introspective and clever with recurring themes and ten-minute anthems, but it lacked refinement and mastery simply because of the DIY nature of its recording. For so long Car Seat Headrest was marked by a low fidelity aesthetic, and while that was part of the charm of Twin Fantasy, its reissue increases the listenability of the album by cleaning up its once muddled melodies. After the immense success of Teens of Denial, Toledo’s choice to do a complete re-record of Twin Fantasy rather than release new music may be unexpected, but it’s completely welcome to those who love Twin Fantasy. Teens of Denial was met with widespread critical acclaim, and, as a result, Car Seat Headrest’s audience expanded greatly beyond the cult of Bandcamp fans Toledo had already amassed. In 2015, Will Toledo expanded his lineup upon signing to Matador Records and the following year released Teens of Denial, his first album of new music since signing. Over the next three and a half years, Toledo would self-release 8 LPs, including Twin Fantasy (2011), which quickly gained a cult following. “You can take him home to your mother and say, ‘Ma, this is my brother.’” Toledo’s level of lyrical detail rang a chord with thousands of Bandcamp fans-and this rerecorded version of some of his most personal songs is a captivating dive back into the head of a teenager through the eyes of a man.Car Seat Headrest started in 2010 as the DIY project of Will Toledo, named for his habit of recording in his car. “Pretty soon you’ll find some nice young Satanist with braces,” he sings. “Beach Life-in-Death” is 13 minutes of crunchy, propulsive guitar building to explosive climaxes, strung together with soul-searching lyrics: Toledo recalls faking drunk when he came out to friends to defer the heaviness. The 90-second acoustic dirge “Stop Smoking (We Love You)” is gorgeously effective-the title is the lyrics, plus, “And we don’t want you to die.” Elsewhere, he’s crafted intricate alt-rock epics. Toledo wasn’t even 20 when he created Twin Fantasy, and it’s fascinating to hear the matured songwriter returning to these complex songs with often agonizing lyrics of sexual identity, mental health, drugs and, you know, teen angst. Now, he’s returning with arguably his best: Twin Fantasy, originally a knotty, lo-fi guitar album released in 2011, rerecorded with some extra muscle and clarity. By the time Teens of Denial was released, he’d already quietly dropped an impressive catalog of albums via Bandcamp. But Will Toledo’s crawl into your indie-rock playlist was, in truth, a slow one. Car Seat Headrest seemed to pop out of nowhere in 2016-a young guy with glasses raging like he was rattling MTV’s buzzbin alongside Pavement and Modest Mouse. ![]()
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