Car Seat Headrest weave an epic tale on The Scholars

During its nascency as a solo bedroom operation, multiple releases per year were de rigueur; as a full band, CSH are no stranger to jamming clear across the 60 minute mark.

The Scholars, though, takes things up a grade. The term “rock opera” has rarely been so apt, with Toledo and co getting deep into some serious world building for Car Seat Headrest’s 13th record (fifth as a full band). While they stop short of a libretto, the LP runs deep, with a fictional university and its cast of staff and students playing out high concept, often sprawling narratives tackling the full a la carte menu of heavy duty themes.

For some fans, that’ll no doubt be the selling point. But for those who don’t necessarily need their records to be drenched in narrative intrigue and, like, character development, the question is: how are the hooks and riffs and melodies etc? The good news on that front is that this is, at times, the punchiest CSH have sounded in the best part of a decade. The band make the most of their 70+ minute runtime, of course - more on that in a bit - but the concept seldom threatens to overwhelm the fact that we’re here for a good time.

Opener “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)” starts things off with Vince Guaraldi vibes – jazzy drums, sprightly piano. When the glitchy guitars kick in, though, we’re quickly into the maximalist indie pop that CSH do better than most. It’s the aural equivalent of making a great stew – they throw so much into the pot, but somehow everything plays its part and never threatens to overwhelm. “The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man)” is the standout for those in it for the sharp, sugary jams. It’s gleefully loud and brash, with howl-at-the-moon backing vox. The breakdown section is the rock opera at its least po-faced, with Toledo’s narrator asking the eternal question “Does it put the ram in the ramalamadingdong?”

Fitting of an album with grand intentions, there are some long old songs on here. Three of them, one after the other, make up the back half of the LP (save for a brief epilogue), and they provide dramatic thrust aplenty. "Gethsemane," a slightly strange choice for a first single, is perhaps the most dynamic, a proggy affair that shifts in form multiple times across its 10 minute duration. “Reality”, a downtempo affair that brings in voices other than Toledo’s, is melodically gorgeous, heart rending in some of the desperate high notes.

“Planet Desperation” is a bit more troublesome. Essentially: it’s nearly 19 minutes long, and to be frank, songs don’t tend to need to be 19 minutes long. There are ideas galore, no doubt – you have to have a fair few ideas when your song’s nearly the length of an episode of Frasier – but no great ones. It feels its length; it’s really the only time you can feel CSH trying to make not a great album but a grand statement.

The conceptual nature of The Scholars, then, does feel at times like a reason for the record to be so long, but that’s understandable. There are only a handful of pop albums that can sustain epic run times through the power of really, really good songs alone (Car Seat Headrest’s Teens Of Denial is one of them). There’s a story for those who want it and some delightful songcraft for those who don’t. Not a bad compromise.