Car Seat Headrest--Teens of Denial

this is what I want from music

this is both tragic and pitiable

he also lists lucy dacus which is a great indie rock record by a 19-year-old

lucy dacus >>>>>>>>>

I haven't listened to this yet, but legit question- does ilx not like this because it's actually a weak record or is it more because ilx is adverse to blatant "indie rock" tropes/styles that generally appeal to demographics younger than this site regardless of the strength of the record itself? Like is the defensive cynicism a bit thicker than normal prior to listening to it? It's way up on almost every year end list and I'm getting a resentment vibe here. There must be something special about it. kornrulez6969 is right in the sense that overt indie rock as a genre is least likely to have the amount of apologetics pop/dance/rap does around here from what I've seen.

All that being said, if I finally get around to it perhaps I'll agree it sucks who knows.

it's def over-rated but not without its charms

i thought this was pretty decent and there are def some good songs but i felt like i heard way catchier indie rock albums this year

Going to stop trying to defend a throwaway comment because yeah of course people shouldn't stop making indie, and it's not awful or anything. I like a lot of things that sound exactly the same as a lot of other things, I just don't like this thing that much. But I guess it is irritating when the critical attitude doesn't seem to move forward that much. There are any number of amazingly creative indie albums that came out this year, but it's things like this that get all the hype and it just seems a shame. It's not bad, but for me it just lacks passion.

i love identical death metal records and identical ambient records and will take 1000000000 more of them pls

i don't think this is necessarily "more of the same" indie nonsense, it's clearly got some sense of ambition, i just think that ambition actively detracts from the songcraft, which is merely ok

really the beef as ever isn't so much with the artist as with the tiresome as fuck music hype machine that renders this arguably mediocre fare inescapable while something like, say, the new Votaries album Psychometry gets next to no hype at all despite purveying arguably superior music. the beef is therefore a reaction against this critical process, because while all criticism is subjective, sometimes that subjectivity ends up pandering in am arguably lazy way towards records that have had their momentum ready-generated, for whatever reason. this is a beef towards a new criticism. my criticism. which you are free to ignore.

see also everyone tripping over themselves to praise frank ocean's new clothes, largely because the critical momentum is already there

no, my beef is with the artist--even if we limit ourselves to "indie rock" i don't think this is very good music, and that was my opinion way before year-end list time.

i think 'will toledo' can make whatever the hell he wants tbh, although that doesn't mean we might need or like it

xp Dave otm

call me...yeah Dave's fine

I don't get the Parquet Courts comparison, even if I put aside the fact that I prefer Parquet Courts.

i don't really see much musical ambition as maybe this dude never played shows much before he wrote so he never got to see what it looked like when ppl started going to get beer or take a piss during the boring stuff?

agreed w/alfred wrt parquet courts, feels like ppl just are throwing 2 names together

Dave

It's a good record... if you enjoy the genre? I'll add that it's an even better story, perhaps the hype is music journalists zeroing in the story more than the actual record? Seems to be a common trope with publications that covers indie music. I haven't read a single year end list that doesn't mention CSR's bandcamp origins. As it has been said above, the genre produced better albums this year and not receiving half of the year end coverage CSH is getting. (My Woman is my prime example).

Going through as many Yankee Hotel Foxtrot reviews as I could when I got obsessed with the record in 2009, I realized most 'indie music' publications could write about is the label war that birthed the record and the music itself was pretty secondary.

bandcamp artist makes good, fucking fairytale of 2016 right there. i stand with the bandcamp artists who will never make it *folds arms*

Neverban Dave Jagger

The record is ok if forgettable (the tapes n tapes comparison is actually pretty otm). It's the hype that annoys me, like everyone is pretending this record is actually one of the best records this year when it's so average. If I read one of those reviews and listen to it I'd go "huh? THIS is the best rock album of the year!? What a shit year for rock it must've been then". I know I shouldn't care what everyone wants to listen to but I feel they're inflating the importance of this record and band. by the next record (two record tops) the same people that are so passionate about the band this year will elicit the same meh I'm getting from them. Mark my words.

don't think the Angel Olsen album is the best example since it was deservingly better reviewed and is getting more EOY list placements etc.

is it? I was under the impression CSH is getting way more attention, my bad.

feels to me like csh is getting more run too

by the next record (two record tops) the same people that are so passionate about the band this year will elicit the same meh I'm getting from them. Mark my words.

― Moka, Thursday, December 8, 2016 1:50 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is sadly otm but could also be said about p much 90% of the bands whose names appear in mid-sized font on any 2016 festival bill you can name

Tobias Jesso Jr, anyone?

whom

Angel Olsen >>> Car Seat Headrest. Is anyone questioning that? CSH is good in a different way -- they're more of a minor act

You wont hear it from me. The Angel Olsen is good... not the sort of record I play usually but I can see its replay value over the years whereas CSH will inevitably get replaced by 2017's best new indie darling.

Yeah they are in totally different categories. Watching high school basketball games is fun but it's not the nba

That said the people viciously criticizing car seat headrest are heartless monsters

Tobias Jesso Jr will possibly end up as an industry songwriter - he's written stuff with Sia, Adele and John Legend already

Like the Semisonic dude

and Desmond Child

Lucy Dacus is sort of an indie-folk PJ Harvey, which I guess is a bit more original than Car Seat's 80s and 90s retro rock, although sometimes he's more catchy than her despite being derivative

there's no reason the intro to Vincent had to be 2 minutes

but it's the best part of the song :P

how is it possible no one has mentioned toledo has listened to much modern lovers way too much

One band not mentioned as an influence (possibly because they weren't on Matador) is Archers of Loaf, and his vocals sometimes sound like Bachman in subdued mode, as do some of the more anthemic bits of the better songs. I like a few tracks on this a lot, think he'd be better with a better band but that might be coming, and don't see any reason to dislike him for not being more than he is.

This squonk wishes he was half as good as Archers of Loaf

half would be generous

I love AoL, but really don't see the need to run this guy down. He's put out a pretty good throwback indie rock album in 2016. Of all the people to criticize, he seems pretty low on the list. It's a catchy album, decent band, decent recordings, and Butterglory got an awful lot of press back in the day. (And I still like them ok as well). Just seems silly for this band, of all bands, to have a backlash at all.

Wait ... what does Butterglory have to do with this? I'm missing something.

can we run down people whose idea of rock is so narrow that this is the album that determines how good of a year it was for it

like with a car?

throw car seat headrests at them

i don't think this is necessarily "more of the same" indie nonsense, it's clearly got some sense of ambition, i just think that ambition actively detracts from the songcraft, which is merely ok

― who is extremely unqualified to review this pop album (BradNelson), Thursday, December 8, 2016 5:11 PM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is doubly true of the twin fantasy remake that just came out

it's so so bloated! the original was long enough at an hour and then he added another 11 minutes onto it

Only on my first listen but I can't tell if this record is amazing or an overindulgent mess. There are great moments in it and I like its "this-record-will-save-your-teenage-self"'s level of ambition, but aahhhh I just wish he'd write a strong, simple hook - something that so many other bands can do with songs that aren't 12 minutes long. It's a good record and I understand it's appeal, but it's emotional weight doesn't always translate into greatness. Also that "I am a good person" monologue is cringeworthy as hell

someone should edit his stuff down and put it on Bandcamp like that one dude did with JT's 20/20 Experience

i...quite like this

whyyy