Car Seat Headrest - Teens Of Denial (2LP Vinyl)

With Teens of Denial, his first real "studio" album with an actual band, Will Toledo moves from bedroom pop to something approaching classic rock grandeur and huge (if detailed and personal) narrative ambitions, with nods to the Cars, Pavement, Jonathan Richman, Wire, and William Onyeabor. Teens of Denial refracts Toledo's particular, personal story of one difficult year through cultural touchstones such as the biography of Frank Sinatra, the evolution of the Me Generation as seen in Mad Men and elsewhere, plus elements of Eastern and Western theology. The whole thing flaunts a kind of conceptual, lyrical, and musical ambition that has been missing from far too much 21st-century music. Horns, keyboards, and elegant instrumental interludes set off art-garage moments; vivid vocal harmonies follow punk frenzy. The selfish captain of the capsized cruise liner in the Mediterranean in 2013 becomes a metaphor for struggles of the individual in society, as experienced by one hungover young man on the verge of adulthood.

1 Fill in the Blank
2 Vincent
3 Destroyed By Hippie Powers
4 (Joe Gets Kicked Out of School for Using) Drugs with Friends (But Says This Isn't a Problem)
5 Just What I Needed / Not Just What I Needed
6 Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales
7 1937 State Park
8 Unforgiving Girl (She's Not An)
9 Cosmic Hero
10 The Ballad of the Costa Concordia
11 Connect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra)
12 Joe Goes to School