Car Seat Headrest - Making a Door Less Open Review
‘Making a Door Less Open’ Sees Toledo in a more melancholic vibe than previous records. Musically, however, Car Seat Headrest feel at their most experimental. Whether this experimentation pays off is another matter.
It’s been four long years since Car Seat Headrest’s last serious record and having been disappointed in that, unnecessary-feeling, re-recording of ‘Twin Fantasy’ in 2018 I couldn’t wait to hear if Will Toledo and company had managed to evolve their sound. ‘Making a Door Less Open’ Sees Toledo in a more melancholic vibe than previous records. Musically, however, Car Seat Headrest feel at their most experimental. Whether this experimentation pays off is another matter.
The opening track ‘Weightlifters’ is a testament to what makes this band great. Out of the droning guitar comes undoubtedly cool and catchy lyrics from frontman Will Toledo. Lyrically this track speaks of your body being too old for you — an interesting start to this record. The second track, and lead single from this album, ‘Can’t Cool Me Down’ was the first track I heard from this project and it thoroughly impressed me with its use of electronics. Moving away from the guitar-based anthem of ‘Teens of Denial’ the single revolves more about a funky bass lane and 00s nostalgic keyboards and Toledo’s classic shouty vocals. The next track ‘Deadlines (Hostile)’ almost sounds like it belongs on an album by The Voidz — especially around the 1:10 mark, blasting into a chorus drenched in distortion while Toledo howls ‘Am I on you’re mind’. The following track, ‘Hollywood’, is interesting: at times it sounds like what you’d expect My Chemical Romance to be putting out in 2020 if they were releasing music. This song is a masterclass in vocal work for Toledo — somehow sounding like Beck, Gerard Way, and Alexis Taylor at various points throughout the track. The track has a powerful chunky riff that rocks throughout.
On ‘Hymn (Remix)’ you really start get the feeling of the experimentation going on throughout this album. After auto-tuned vocals and eerie rhythms at the start of the song, the track blows up halfway through to a synthetic psychedelic jam only to sound like a Justice song and then dive into hard drum and bass rhythms. Interesting how Toledo cherry picks sounds. ‘Martin’ is a genuinely incredible track. Scratchy acoustic guitars blast in before Toledo sings one of the most memorable melodies on the album. The whole song has a feel-good attitude and gorgeous production. You can really feel the power of his emotion in the performance. The track also features a nice brass detour towards the end before ultimately fading out with manipulated vocals.
By track seven ‘Deadlines (Thoughtful)’ you start to question whether you’re listening to the same album. The track feels like it belongs on a dance floor and is quite the stylistic leap to follow ‘Martin’. This is unfortunately where the album loses the coherence that it had been building on as the track feels quite out of place with those that preceded it. It just feels like a really bad Bloc Party track. The next track ‘What’s With You Lately’ also feels quite weak at just 1:35 the track seems somewhat underwritten. Stylistically another crazy shift happens here as well, pushing the album into a more sombre place with little more than vocals and guitar. This definitely feels out of place after hearing the previous track. With ‘Life’s Worth Missing’ it feels like the album might be about the get back on track and to some extent it does but the bands choice of grating synths don’t really do very much in favour of the song. This would actually be quite a good song if the arrangement didn’t feel so messy.
‘There Must Be More Than Blood’ is a much-welcomed track, which builds incredibly. Well-conceived production and arrangement. This is the longest track on the album as a 7:34-long dreamy hypnotic tune. You can’t help but hum along during the chorus. This track almost redeems the three tracks that came before it in terms of cohesion. I love the way this track ends with its trippy atmospheric reverb-drenched guitar stabs. The last track on the record ‘Famous’ goes back to similar experimentation that has been seen in this record. Using scratchy synths and sharp drum machines. Toledo sings ‘Please, let somebody care about this’ — an interesting lyric perhaps referencing his own work? The song ends with glitchy vocals in an almost abrupt way.
There’s elements of the new album that sound like Car Seat Headrest have been listening to too much Mid 2000’s music, rarely taking sounds and using them in a satisfying or original way. The album has a lot of incredible ideas and moments on it but thematically seems to be lacking and musically lacks the cohesion that this album demands. Some of the tracks on here are Car Seat Headrest’s best work — no doubt about that. But their over-experimentation and tonal shifts bog the album down with incoherence. For an album that starts out so strong and has some really incredible tracks, it’s disappointing that this consistency isn’t throughout the project.
