Car Seat Headrest - "Making A Door Less Open" | Album Review

The prolific Will Toledo and Car Seat Headrest have returned but not in the guise one would have envisioned. Once again backed by the might of Matador Records (one of the strongest band-and-label pairings in recent years), the indie icon has now taken his studious approach to electronica on the band’s 12th album. For this isn’t solely a Car Seat Headrest record, as Toledo has tried to make crucially clear: rather it’s a collaboration with the bizarre 1TraitDanger, an electronic side project started by Toledo and his drummer Andrew Katz. It’s based around Toledo’s alter-ego Trait, a Deadmau5-esque gas-mask-wearing character and the result on this album is a clashing of concepts, but one that they’re able to pull off; it embraces the new dance and electronic elements while maintaining their sharp and introspective lyricism. Making A Door Less Open will alienate some of the band’s more casual listeners - those that first discovered them during the wildfire acclaim of the Teens of Denial era - but Toledo has never been the sort of artist who would care anyway.