Car Seat Headrest: Teen of Denial: Joe's Story

Will Toledo has repeatedly reworked earlier Car Seat Headrest material until it felt right, including multiple rerecordings of “Oh! Starving.” After signing to Matador Records, he released Teens of Style, a compilation of remakes drawn from non-hit Bandcamp recordings. He later revisited the mainstream breakthrough Teens of Denial, originally released in 2016, which introduced a literary, droll narrator and blended lo-fi Elephant 6 sensibilities with Monkees-style pop harmonies. The album’s protagonist, Joe, follows a coming-of-age arc involving drug-fueled parties, heaven-bound declarations, and a depiction of clinical depression through a Van Gogh portrait. A decade later, Teen of Denial: Joe's Story offers partial revisions with mostly minor sonic changes and reduced focus on the original’s angsty strengths.

"Will Toledo loves to tinker. Even in the early days of his project Car Seat Headrest-back before he became widely recognized as an indie-rock wunderkind-he occasionally re-worked old songs until they felt right. (Take, for example, "Oh! Starving," originally recorded in 2010, then rerecorded it in 2012 and again in 2015.) But after signing to Matador Records, Toledo took things up a notch, releasing Teens of Style, a compilation of remakes picked from his greatest non-hits scattered across his Bandcamp recordings."

"Toledo's latest reworking takes on Car Seat Headrest's breakthrough to the mainstream: 2016's Teens of Denial. That record, their first album of original material for Matador, offered an infectious, literary introduction to a droll kid who wanted to carve out a spot in rock history. Part of Toledo's charm came from how he remodeled his influences into something singular, working the lo-fi instincts of Elephant 6 artists and the Monkees' pop harmonies into his emotional epics."

"He decided the narrator for Teens of Denial would be named Joe, in a nod to the character that appears throughout Daniel Johnston's Hi, How Are You, and then sent the protagonist on a coming-of-age crash course. Along the way, Joe attended parties on DMT, proclaimed that he was heaven-bound, and concluded that a Vincent Van Gogh portrait accurately represented clinical depression."

"It's now been a decade since Teens of Denial, so Toledo and co. have decided to celebrate with Teen of Denial: Joe's Story, a partial revision of their crowning achievement. For the most part, these tweaks take the focus off the album's angsty strengths. Minor sonic adjustments-an updated guitar lick from Ethan Ives here, some additional horns there-are largely inconsequential, aside from the newly muted drum ton"

Read at Pitchfork