Car Seat Headrest - 5 / Twin Fantasy

These are two albums from Car Seat Headrest, AKA: I don't know, I didn't check into it that closely.  And I don't remember exactly how I stumbled on these albums either.  5 came out in March, Twin Fantasy in November.  Both are brilliant, both are downloadable via Bandcamp: name-your-price.

 (Self released, 2011)

So, dude's been messing around until now, or is unimpressed with himself until now--so says the Car Seat Headrest Bandcamp page--or he's has been gearing up on wizardry, gearing up on nonchalance, practicing hook-laden concoctions on the dogs, setting himself up for setting time bombs inside of people's minds; namely, mine.  Sure, "Twin Fantasy and 5 are my good albums."  And, "the other stuff on here is Not So Great."  But, really, I haven't even had time enough to figure out what "Not So Great" means because what I found out "good" means ("my two good albums") is something on par with: Twin Fantasy and 5 are two of the best albums of the year.  And they're two full albums at that.  Two individual albums.  Indie rock albums.  Connected aesthetically but not in a messy way that obligates you to treat the two together.  There's the bedroom lo-fi thing happening here, but that's happening everywhere.  I hear it everyday.  Email after email.  It only ever works with songwriting and Car Seat Headrest is songwriting.  5 is, if I making hasty value statements, the slightly lesser of the two (though, there are moments when I doubt that).  And to say lesser is only to separate the two by pencil shavings.  Think early Clap Your Hands Say Yeah filtered through Times New Viking, two times removed (or whatever it takes to win back a band's soul once compared to bands ubiquitously known as CYHSY and TNV). 

 (Self released, 2011)

All that stuff I said up there with even better songs.  And a feeling of inadequacy resulting from the impulse to compare the music to such generic indie rock staples.  It's only to say that this feels equally important in my mind.  Car Seat Headrest: an FG indie rock staple.  Wonderful range and depth.  Twin Fantasy listening to steadily a few years from now.