It’s been at least 10 years since the car seat headrest achieved a major breakthrough, but it has hardly booked its reputation as a college band. Look at one way Scholar After the ambitious electronics and island story of the 2020s, another bold experiment from a Wiltredo-led project You will no longer be able to open the doorIt embraces the evolving trends as a band, as the natural fit and extension of rock opera. Look at it differently. It’s an opportunity to age into their indie rock credibility and guide the community spirit in the form of concept albums about fictional colleges, playing with the cast of characters, integrating illness, heritage and rebellion, including the album’s broadest themes, while splitting the obligations of songwriting. They wear listeners snake-inspiringly in the final stretch, but reward those who are patient and studying enough to dive into the story. Even if you realize you are losing interest in yourself, it is difficult not to leave to be certain that this is the size and territory they should work for.
1. CCF (I’m going to be with you)
This is a per-track review and it’s fascinating to unpack the lore around using the format Scholar Stubborn fans try to understand the inexplicable story by digging into the lyrics sheet. But I’m more interested in the fact that if you’re still devoted, fans can get out of the album by focusing on the music itself. That said, this record helps a bit of context to step into the door. “CCF (I’m going to be with you)” is the first to jump into the world of Parnassus University. Belco is a student who believes to be a playwright named Scop, a kind of spiritual descendant of its founder. His most unhealthy thoughts were, “There was a line that my idols couldn’t cross / On the other side there was love, here there was loss,” sings Toledo.
As an eight-minute epic, the song proves how well the band can pull off the suite, stacking one great hook on top. To please the melody doesn’t have to decipher the lines Toledo spins over and over again. It’s not the time when the singer himself sounds very casual. “Remember what I told you, you should look in the air, everything you wanted to feel, everything around you,” he sings the song. I don’t even know who was talking to who, but that was the case.
2. Debo
The systemic issues will be carried over to the second truck, centered around the “backwater religious conservative son” who is testing his luck at nearby Piero University. Hopefully, he prays to his grandfather, who shares his name, not the founder of the university. (In the previous song, the chorus is delivered by “Silent Whisper.”) While the song has fewer Catharsis, it’s the most classic indie rock CSH that’s pretty much distracting from the theme connection with the opener.
3. Approximate Lady Gay
This is a song with more work in the background than the actual music. “Mallory joins the ‘Bird of Paradise’,” we learn. The story should stand strong outside the context of the album, but the tension is barely shining. But it makes sense that it is here.
4. Catastrophe (and do your best, man)
The band quickly lists things with “Cat (and good luck with that, man).” We listen to Chanticleer’s perspective again. This is also when the song feels more personal, if not straightforwardly autobiographical. The song is about a group of clowns, but it’s not difficult to read as a metacommentary on tours. It feels like it’s a life of sincerity and community and catharticism. wall and Ziggy Stardust It’s certainly a touchstone for this record, but the grandeur and self-reflection of pop punk makes it align American Fooltoo. It works better than you thought.
5. equal
Here, things become a bit confusing, plot-wise, or thrilling, depending on how things are invested in the story. While described as a “deep late-night conversation” between Bealco and a university professor who was accused of stealing the skull of a university troll and double as commentary on cancel culture, “Equals” offers little beyond the record’s esoteric framework. At least not drag.
6. Gethsemane
As a test site for Scholar“Notti’s Ambition,” Gethsemane knocks out of the park. Listeners will reward the 11th minute, even if Toledo’s particularly powerful vocal performances can’t separate the different perspectives of the song, where the meandering arrangements and heavy philosophy come to life. Plus, the story of Rosa, a university medical student, can absorb patient pain, but it may be the album’s most fascinating one. “There is nothing to offer to restore what was taken,” declares our narrator. “Your body is a temple, but your holy wounds hurt.” It is cut into bones and you become stumped and shattered for context. Fortunately, Scholar It offers a lot.
7. reality
Chanticleer apparently became a victim of “madness or early death,” and we see that it blurs the line between the two. As Chanticleer’s ghost tries to reach it, he sings towards Bandmates. It should be the album’s most moving song, but in 11 minutes, the sentimentality feels stretched and somewhat forced. It’s refreshing to hear guitarist Ethan Ives sing the co-lead, but with Toledo’s previous representation of Artemis’ character, the story becomes difficult for listeners to follow, and the Ark’s most cathartic point feels a bit redundant.
8. Planet despair
Scholar‘Towering Clirax is the towering space prog odyssey, marking the longest song ever and housed in nearly 19 minutes. We follow Hyacinth, dean of the Liberal Arts School in Parnassus, who was poisoned by rival Clown College and witnessed scenes of destruction on campus. He even screams at Ziggy Stardust. But what CSH has completed is not a kind of multipart, hook-filled suite. There are some movements, but they offer a theatrical format rather than driving the momentum of the song. But it gives Toledo the space to deliver some of his most pointed, rising lyrics on the album. The record’s strongest refrain is reinforced by “You can love again/You can try again” and “Gessemane”.
9. True/Fake Lover
surprise! Chanticleer has been around forever, so the record is nearing its end with its shortest and easiest, brightest song. After more than 30 minutes of dangerous experimentation and classic rock opera worship, “True/False Lover” reminds us of the natural impulses of the car seat headrest as an ambitious indie rock band in the playlist era. “I’m going home forever, from the backdoor, another time/field planted, waiting for summer,” sings Toledo. No matter how much they pivot, their music can only feel like homecoming in the end.
