In 2011, a teenaged Will Toledo released his sixth record under his Car Seat Headrest moniker.

Self-recorded and self-published digitally through the music webstore Bandcamp, Twin Fantasy was his best yet — a culmination of the previous five records’ low-fidelity indie-fuzz charm. This month, a refreshed, aesthetically refurbished version of the album comes out through esteemed indie label Matador Records.

Re-recorded with his live band in a more professional studio, and building on Toledo’s growing popularity, the new Twin Fantasy is an assured record that’s much more than a cosmetic retouch of the original. 

While its production is an obvious progression, the recent years have given Toledo a lot of apparent insight into song arrangements, resulting in a record that straightforwardly “rocks” without abandoning any of its creator’s indie-rock idiosyncrasies; it is radio-ready crunch not erasing the blown-out speaker seduction of its teenage self.

“It was never a finished work and it wasn’t until last year that I figured out how to finish it.” Toledo says in the record’s press release.

Indeed, the new Twin Fantasy feels finished. The songs lurch forward with confidence, moving in various directions without ever losing sight of identity. 

Toledo’s half-mumbled vocal style brings to mind an emo Julian Casablancas of The Strokes fame, shifting from theatrical ennui into emotional yelps within songs — adding an extra biff to the prevalent quite-too-loud dynamics.

These elements were already there within the original version, half-hidden under a fog of overdriven amps and scraps of reverb-stained instrumentations. 

“My Boy [Twin Fantasy]” retains the pleading slow-build of the original, mostly dusting off the persistent crunchiness of its younger counterpart to put forward the momentous build-up of its arrangement, rustling from a gentler verse (“My boy, we don’t see each other much/ My boy, we don’t see each other much” he repeats as much to himself as to the listener) onto an emotive refrain that finds Toledo’s assurance that “It’ll take some time, but somewhere down the line/ We won’t be alone”.

“Sober to Death” proceeds with a similar build up. Augmenting its soft-loud changes with a breakdown that exploits that dynamic memorably — literally shifting between clean-and-distorted guitars and whisper-to-pounding drums every half-bar. It would feel like mere gimmick if it did not work within the context of the song; Toledo once again proclaiming a sentiment of hopeful unity — “Don’t worry, you and me won’t be alone no more”. 

First single “Nervous Young Inhumans” meanwhile, pulls things in reverse; taking off running with straightforward rock fashion before landing with an eclectic clean close, a jammier quirky-guitar-driven epilogue that charms in its oddness.

The new production makes its presence and prowess most obvious on Twin Fantasy’s more-ambitious moments. 

The 13-minute plus “Beach Life-and-Death” maneuvers from sounding like early-period Strokes into late-period Strokes (this is not necessarily a negative) into crackling garage-grunge before mutating in a haze of stylistic distortion into a decidedly dramatic fast-running crescendo. 

While multi-suite indie rock may yet take over 2018, the song works stronger than the 16-minute “Famous Prophets (Stars)”, which finds fewer dramatic shifts — though it does become a piano ballad at one point — but rests on a more-sustained (and thus less intriguing to get through) low-to-mid-tempo rhythm.

Twin Fantasy’s strength as a record is in the way it offers a new perspective in its creation. It feels like a progression-through-retrospective; a clear evaluation of an artist of their younger self in order to grow. 

“This one has totally replaced the old one in my mind […] I was not in the same place then. It felt at times like doing a cover record. The old one is by a different artist that I don’t necessarily like as much as the one I’ve turned into,” Toledo said to Rolling Stone.

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