Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

To follow newfound fame among young listeners with an hour-plus rock opera is a bold move to most, but for Virginia born Will Toledo and his expansive Car Seat Headrest project, it doesn’t fall a million miles away from the more epic moments peppered throughout his acclaimed catalogue. Although ‘The Scholars’ embraces the idea of a concept record at its most distilled, Will and friends have never shied away from a fifteen-minute sonic whirlwind. But perhaps most notably here, these friends have been fully absorbed into the fold, expanding in sound from Will’s solo musings for an altogether more composed affair to allow some breathing room for Will – who has spent some of the past five years battling some almost career-ending health issues - and to bring the album’s character-driven narrative to life.

That story, centring around a series of fictional personalities at the equally fictitious Parnassus University, is perhaps arguably difficult to follow, but builds the backdrop for a psychedelic, classic rock mashup that absorbs and expands on the sound Car Seat Headrest have claimed as their own. It also allows for Will to frame his own rebirth of sorts; within its nods to David Bowie, The Who and a whole plethora of celebrated rockers unfurls a complex tale of family, sexuality, poison, and world-saving superpowers. The immediacy of the comparably short and sharp first half (at least in track number alone) gives way to a sprawling crescendo of epics – not least the near-19 minute ‘Planet Desperation’; a track as camp as it is masterful, with more than a gentle nod to the 1960s and ‘70s. This grandeur and scale appears the opposite to the fleeting nature of the online platforms that have introduced Car Seat Headrest to a whole new audience, but then perhaps that’s the point – for Will, his band, and their fans, there really is a new world to explore, quite literally.