Car Seat Headrest, a band that truly started in a car and now functions on the big stage, has had a plethora of different sounds in their 14 years of existence. The band boasts a cult following — and one I dare say is one worth having. Going back and relistening to “How to Leave Town” proves the wide-ranging sound they have and how well their concepts come to fruition.
“How to Leave Town” is an hour-long EP, with two songs over 10 minutes long, three nearly 10, and the rest wide-ranging in length. The black to orange cover contains minimal to no art, just an astronaut guy sitting and gazing at the yellow title, lost in the space around him. Across the album, vocalist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Will Toledo uses his iconic blurry vocals over a melodic and consistent drumbeat, with the call back to the ’80s synth softly carrying him through the empty space. The EP cover perfectly embodies the galactic, lost-in-space sound the project has. The opening track “The Ending of Dramamine” establishes a consistent sound, prioritizing a soft and hazy synth, with woozy guitar overlaying the tracks.
“Beast Monster Thing (Love Isn’t Love Enough)” is a track that feels like it could be found on their 2016 release “Teens of Denial” while maintaining that distant feeling established in the previous track. The way the guitar overbears nearly every other aspect of the track while flowing in and out of matching the synth, working together with the drums to push the limits of the track building anticipation, shows an aspect Toledo harps on and maintains in his later works.
Throughout these airy songs, Toledo sings mournfully of life and existence in general, hitting on topics of home and broken friendships. Car Seat Headrest’s trend of generally saddening lyrics doesn’t stop in this EP, only breaking this pattern once with “You’re in Love with Me,” another track that reminds me of “Teens of Denial,” guitar, drums and all.
Although “How to Leave Town” resembles Toledo’s later work, his indecipherable lyrics most well-known in his car-produced albums are ever-present and mostly seen in “I Want You to Know That I’m Awake/i Hope That You’re Asleep.” His early works sound like they were recorded with layers of fabric and plastic between the microphone and his mouth, and that is because of how he made music on GarageBand for years.
“How to Leave Town” is an album length EP, one that demonstrates Car Seat Headrest’s wide-ranging musical palette while maintaining iconic characteristics of their work like synced guitar and drums, fuzzy vocals. They manage to embody the concept of galactic space and isolation with woozy synth and guitar.
