Subway Album Review #5 Car Seat Headrest

The following is based on a true story: I decided to systematically review an entire list of albums I’ve never heard of for no particular reason at all.

#5  Car Seat Headrest - Teens of Style

Is a pit bull in a tutu a ballerina? Naw, dawg. This album is another kind of dress-up; simplistic pop melodies obfuscated with gain and reverb so as to be borderline incomprehensible in an attempt to trick people into thinking it is somehow profounder than it actually is.

Am I being too cynical? Maybe I’ve got it all wrong. When I first started making music, I used to layer so many tracks on top of each other in an attempt to cover up the musical shortcomings that my recordings often sounded as though they’d been recorded in a tiny aluminum closet. So maybe this band is also suffering a crisis of confidence? That'd be silly though, they seem like they might know what they're doing.

At any rate, this album transforms your headphones into a tin can telephone with the Beach Boys on the other end. Golden California pop melodies and melodic wailing in the form of oohs and ohs float over muffled drums, bass, guitar, and simplistic one-handed keyboard and organ melodies. It’s not boring but it’s not engaging. There is a respectable earnestness to it. Maybe the lyrics are important? I dunno, couldn’t make out more than a couple of words the whole time.

TL;DR If there’s good stuff here, it’s hiding in there somewhere.