The first studio album from Car Seat Headrest in five years, ‘The Scholars.’

From Shakespeare to Mozart to classical opera, Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo pulled from the classics when devising the lyrics and story arc of ‘The Scholars,’ while the music draws, carefully, from classic rock story song cycles such as The Who’s ‘Tommy’ and David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust.’ “One thing that can be a struggle with rock operas is that the individual songs kind of get sacrificed for the flow of the plot,” Toledo notes. “I didn’t want to sacrifice that to make a very fluid narrative. And so this is sort of a middle ground where each song can be a character and it’s like each one is coming out on center stage and they have their song and dance.”

While Car Seat Headrest started as Toledo’s solo project, the four-piece is now fully a band. “What we’ve been doing more of in recent years is just taking the pulses of each other.” says Toledo. “It didn’t really feel to me like things got in sync in an inner feeling way until this record, with that internal communal energy. And it’s become that band feeling for me in a much more realized way. That’s been a big journey.”

It is a journey that listeners will want to embark on again and again as they absorb and discover the rich depths and clanging resonances of ‘The Scholars.’

“One Of Indie Rock’s Greatest Bands” - Stereogum
“Perfect, instantly familiar pop songs that echo in the background of your dreams.” - The New Yorker
“[Making a Door Less Open] is the sound of an underground band not so much refining itself for mainstream consumption as embracing the pop capabilities it’s always possessed.” - The New York Times

• GATEFOLD DOUBLE LP FEATURES A FULL COLOR 28-PAGE ILLUSTRATED LYRIC BOOK, ORNATE PACKAGING IN THE GRAND TRADITION OF THE 1970s ROCK OPERA