Automobile Seat Headrest
The Students
Matador
Might 23, 2025
Net Unique
Pop quiz! Which is the primary Automobile Seat Headrest album? Maybe 2010’s 1, Will Toledo’s earliest launch beneath the moniker? Possibly 2011’s Twin Fantasy, his preliminary try writing an album qua album? You may say 2016’s Teenagers of Denial, his studio debut (of recent materials) with a backing band. No matter your bent, its premise probably supposes Automobile Seat Headrest is Will Toledo. The Students shatters such assumptions.
The band’s fifth file on Matador and non secular debut (The Students being their first not absolutely or primarily written by Toledo, however credited to, uh… Automobile Seat Headrest), is difficult. 4 consecutive “must-hear” albums of recent materials “blessedevastated” college-aged audiences from 2011 to 2016; right here, late-20s-to-early-30s followers will discover much less visceral intimacy, fewer “oh-shit-someone-gets-me” strains to sing (or sob/scream). At first, the reference-laden, 70-minute-long conceptual rock opera about anthropomorphic college children holds you at a distance; with time, it seeps into your bones.
Opener “CCF (I’m Gonna Keep With You)” leisurely builds to crescendo earlier than a Wurlitzer remembers “Not What I Wanted” (Teenagers of Denial). The rollicking “Planet Desperation” takes extra turns than you’ll be able to shake a Twin Fantasy plushie at whereas standout monitor “The Disaster (Good Luck With That, Man)” threatens to fall other than sheer exuberance, each robust reminders of the band’s signature mix of basic, prog, and indie rock kinds. If nearly-19-minute-long odysseys aren’t your factor, the stripped-down “Girl Homosexual Roughly” manages to induce shivers from just some layers of hazy acoustic guitar and vocals.
Whereas much less private, The Students additionally represents a lyrical return to type. On “CCF,” actually goated character Beolco declares “Most of what reminiscence tells us is ‘Be careful, (that shit will damage us),’” a witty line that felt missing (or possibly simply much less obvious) on 2020’s Making a Door Much less Open. Elsewhere, the queer-coded, titular protagonist of “Devereaux” and his mom provide heart-wrenching refrains whereas grappling with the immensity of familial expectations and id. It seems that, even when filtered via the views of furry faculty college students, Toledo’s writing nonetheless hits. For a not-insignificant portion of Automobile Seat Headrest’s fanbase, The Students will resonate due to this lens.
When Chanticleer, Artemis, and Tiberius exclaim “We should always begin a band” on “The Disaster,” one nearly senses their human counterparts beaming on the self-reference to their newfound cohesion. Whether or not you favor to dissect its lyrics and backstory or let the music wash over you, The Students asks for and rewards consideration. Like a friendship (or band, actual or in any other case), it blossoms over time. (www.carseatheadrest.bandcamp.com)
Writer score: 8/10
