Car Seat Headrest - The Scholars

Indie Rock – Released May 2, 2025 – 9 songs, 70 mins

LUNDI

The rock opera, a daunting challenge for any musician, has never been commonplace in the music industry but in the 60’s & 70’s Pink Floyd, The Who, and David Bowie all released multiple concept records that stand the test of time. More recently Green Day and My Chemical Romance tried their hand and succeeded. This week’s artist shares the astronomical ambition of those that came before, and while it certainly has flaws so do all of the above. You don’t have to like it, but you should respect it. Car Seat Headrest, The Scholars. Let’s enter into the fantastical world and break down one of the year’s best albums. 

I am chronically online, so ignoring the reactions to albums isn’t something I really ever try to do. It doesn’t influence me, I’m just naturally too opinionated for better or for worse. Just ask the guys who is the only one creating drama in the group chat. With The Scholars, the discourse has been very split and the negative side all treat this as any other rock album, a perspective I just don’t understand. This isn’t my effort to try and convince those panning the album to come to my side, but frame the way I look at a rock opera. Every pop album isn’t created in the same vein. Same for rap and rock or any genre you choose. I also don’t believe a same scoring album in different genres are equals. My favourite burger wouldn’t touch the best steaks I’ve had the pleasure of eating. This just simply isn’t any ol rock n roll record. Is The Scholars overly long? Are there plot holes in the story? Is the execution sometimes messy? I won’t argue against those that say yes but you know what, some of the greatest movies ever tick off those negatives too. Framing your mind to see this record as how Will Toledo and co. want this to be seen is everything in being able to enjoy the experience. It’s over indulgent and decadent. It takes all of your attention for 70 minutes and can exhaust you. But when you give yourself ample time to digest and recover, the returns on this album are grand and mesmerizing. 

With that rant out of the way, let’s focus on how damn great the band sound on their fifth studio effort together, and first they wrote as a complete group. CSH’s fearless leader, Will Toledo, whose music has inspired one of the most insane cult like band followings ever gives his greatest vocal performance to date. The mid-album run of The Catastrophe, Equals, and Gethsemane brings wow moment after wow moment with Toledo hitting notes he’s never dreamed of hitting before. While he adds some subtle but important piano support throughout the album and helps complete the song arrangements the sonics are mostly provided by an extremely talented trio of bandmates. Rarely do drummers get much praise at TSR but Andrew Katz is the secret ingredient to making this all work. His timing and transition performance is flawless, aptly tying together shifts in sonic vision and signature timing without even a slight misstep. As each song meanders through its story, his drum fills make every moment electric. His partner in musical timing, Seth Dalby, is also no slouch on bass guitar. While less noticeable any rock band relies heavily on the drummer/bass duo being a symmetrical pairing, so all the kudos for Katz can be duplicated for Dalby. If Toledo is the brain, those boys are the heart that keeps The Scholars ticking. Now reviewing a rock album and mentioning the guitarist last is probably blasphemy, but it’s not for lack of exceptional work with the axe across the record. Ethan Ives never really takes on any solo work but he is exceptional at leading the band through its in the pocket jam sessions. Even though he might be the straw that stirs the drink, he does very well to add bite to each song when called for. But please can someone explain to me why CSH chose him for vocals on Reality and Planet Desperation? Will Toledo is right there! Like trading Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis. But that might be the single misstep I’d change. On top of all the great things already mentioned the album can only ultimately shine with this level of pristine production and song mixing. The assembled team in and outside the recording booth knocked it out of the park. 

Now to say there is an immense amount happening on The Scholars puts it very lightly. It takes a few listens before the concept behind the album starts to resonate but the storyboard has its stage set by an accompanying libretto only shared with physical copies of the album. Toledo takes time to describe this literary work through poems that act as an interlude to the musical experience which has fortunately made its way online. I’d be lying if I said this didn’t impact my overall outlook on the product but I’m always open ears and eyes, trying to take as much information in as I can handle. It compliments the record so well to the point you can really feel the presence of each of it’s eight characters and make their individual stories come to life, to the point if I really step back and close my eyes during the runtime I can actually manage to picture a myriad of dancers and singers on a Broadway-like stage. It’s a performance through and through, from any angle I take. 

Overall The Scholars is unlike anything I’ve really experienced from an album perspective. I know to some everything I’ve detailed sounds absolutely exhausting but the more I immerse myself in music and the older TSR grows, the more I appreciate the zigs when everyone is zagging. Truly I get it, most people just want music to make them feel good with no work or dissection but to me degree of difficulty matters. Just one music nerds opinion.

Ambition and musical fortitude have long been staples for Car Seat Headrest with The Scholars landing as yet another impressive entry in their expansive and daring discography. It achieves what it aspires to be and that should be celebrated. 

Overall Rating: 8.6/10

Favourite Song: Equals

ROZ

For this week’s entry, I preface my review with a much discussed topic within the music reviewing world: the concept album. What is a concept album exactly? While there is no formal consensus on the matter, the basic idea is that the whole is effectively more important than the individual parts that sum it up. It’s the kind of album that is understood through a full, front to back listen rather than over a shuffled Spotify playlist. This week, TSR reviews the band Car Seat Headrest and their 13th album (yes you head that right), The Scholars.

We here at Too Sweet Reviews are no strangers to this sort of format. In fact, my #3 album of 2024, Magdalena Bay’s Imaginal Disk, was very much a concept album. Other concept albums that passed through TSR’s doors include (but are not limited to) The Weeknd’s Dawn FM, Eminem’s The Death of Slim Shady, Taylor Swifts Midnights, hell even The Killers lackluster 2021 effort Pressure Machine. Regardless of its familiarly, never have I seen an album that combines such a vast, complex, technically sound writing structure with such a loose, carefree jam session-instrument piece. Toledo is on record saying as much; that song length and overall structure - beginnings, endings, peaks, valleys - virtues so cladstone and mapped out in the pop music sphere, were thrown to the wayside in the making of this album. While not unlike the bands previous few albums, it must still be said that The Scholars is very niche in terms of consumption.

This is an album that entirely commits to the world it has created and shows very little respect for the listener in terms of pattern recognition or expectations, not that it has any responsibility to be. The Scholars is very much a ‘rock opera’, as the band proclaims, at points feeling as though it would be best suited for a stage rather than for a set of headphones or speakers. From a pure writing standpoint it is superb, with world building unlike anything I’ve experienced in quite some time. The universe is set in place; the listener is transported to a very fictional, very strange university, described through the experiences of 8 unique characters who either go to the school or work there. Car Seat Headrest draws inspiration from a multitude of classical artists including but not limited to Mozart and Shakespeare, undoubtably excellent playwrights to reference when the goal is to craft the perfect storyboard. Infectious pop hooks (Deveraux), fantastic vocal peformances (Equals) and full-on sonic adventures (Gethsemane, Planet Desperation) greet you along the hour-plus journey you find yourself on if you so choose to buckle down and absorb this album as intended. I cannot help but find myself reflecting on a similar journey I had when I did a full listen of Godspeed You, Black Emperor!’s 2012 behemoth 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! - an absolutely magnificent album in its own right and as complimentary a parallel as one could use when speaking on long-form artistry.

Now, onto Will Toledo. Toledo’s body of work clearly paints him as one of the few modern auteurs within the music industry today, someone who ensures that their creative vision is kept completely intact by enduring the arduous process of being involved in all facets of their arts creation. Due to his health scare, Toledo had to lean more on his bandmates; not necessarily a negative, just a change. Born from the artists long COVID experience and the changes across his workflow and mindset because of said experience, this album serves as a new doorway for a band that’s already churned out a dozen albums prior. Realistically, it would be damn near impossible to reconstruct ones entire creative process and come out the other side proclaiming ‘Eureka’. I am of the firm belief that this is merely the tip of the iceberg; by opening themselves up to this evolved method of composition and production, Car Seat Headrest will improve upon and perfect this new methodology. This album is good - but the next one could truly be great.

Car Seat Headrest takes the idea of the concept album to brand new heights on The Scholars. It also showcases a new creative process, as frontman Toledo has his bandmates put themselves into the album as fully as he does. It would be best experienced the same way one would take in a show at the theatre - with awe, wonderment, and a very detailed playbill.

Overall Rating: 7.7/10

Favourite Song: Gethsemane

REID

Car Seat Headrest was introduced to me years ago by none other than fellow-TSR mate, Lundi. Many evenings have been spent singing or shouting Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales and Drugs with Friends from their 2016 album, Teens of Denial. Will Toledo and his group are young veterans and indie rock darlings. Up until now, Toledo did all the band’s heavy lifting on songwriting. In fact, he ran this thing as a solo project from 2010-2014, spanning the first eight projects. So it’s a major shift in the group’s dynamic to see writing credits to Andrew Katz, Ethan Ives and Seth Dalby on this, their thirteenth studio release. At this point of their careers, why try something different? Why not is the correct response.

CSH took it even further by going with a full-on rock opera. The concept focuses on the journeys of several individuals attending a University. They come from different walks of life but are all searching for meaning in their own. The songs are written and performed from the various perspectives with meticulous detail. Following along lyric-by-lyric feels essential to understand the story and it leaves me both impressed and mesmerized. Toledo’s spiritual storytelling and the way he coins phrases around the music is truly a gift. Comparing this brilliant lyricism with some of the trash played on mainstream radio is laughable. On the other hand, I feel I’m no closer to understanding what the hell is going on in the story than when I started. You’re trying to follow the characters with endless otherworldly metaphors while also soaking in the band’s frequent soundscape changes. It’s just too much. Maybe the physical copy comes with a pamphlet?

The classic TSR issue with this record is its length. It’s staring you right in the face before you hit play. However understanding CSH are telling a story, it’s a lazy argument without additional context. I’m far from a historian of this band having only listened to one of their albums regularly but the musical arrangements seem to show obvious growth. Toledo’s vocal is on point from start to finish and they don’t disappoint with their recurring harmonies. The opener, CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You), feels like a bit of new direction for the group with the creeping synth opener and the horns sprinkled throughout the various rises and falls. Devereaux and Lady Gay Approximately bring what you’ve heard before from the band, with the former’s potential as a slacker rock anthem with its singalong chorus. The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man) is fast paced and catchy and Equals has a slow build with a satisfying pay off. Gethsemane, Reality and Planet Desperation chime in at 10:52, 11:14 and 18:52 respectively, making up almost sixty percent of the album. The first of those three is an epic with two or three memorable lyric hooks to go along with a wide-ranging display of instrumentalism. The other two are decent, standalone tracks but offer little we haven’t already heard. There’s the problem. The band is invested in the telling of this story and gets stuck in a similar position we’ve already heard musically. This leads to a very strong record that drags along for the final twenty to thirty minutes, dissolving the story’s interest in the process. 

With more time, dissection and enlightenment, this album could very well age like a fine wine. In addition to that, I wonder if they ever take this further and bring it to life albeit broadway or a screenplay. I’m just not sure the story is interesting enough to keep me coming back as presented.

The Scholars is a strong, progressive rock album that shows undeniable growth from the band as well as throwbacks to their beloved style. Alternatively, CSH get mired in convoluted story-telling and bite off more than they can chew.

Overall Rating: 7.0/10

Favourite Song: The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man)