![]() ![]() And these seeming constraints hardly detract from the music. The D chord Toledo furiously strums instead is the first indication of the raw uncertainty that washes over the remainder of the song.Īdding to the song’s tempestuous sound, Toledo recorded “Beach Life-In-Death” in about the most raw and unpolished way possible: at the age of 19, on his laptop, in his bedroom. Starting the song with the IV chord rather than the I chord creates an interesting effect: Upon hearing the opening C, those familiar with pop music, even those unconscious of the theory behind it, expect that the next chord will be one that would typically follow in the key of C perhaps a G, an F, or an A minor. “Beach Life-In-Death” has a IV-V-I-iii progression. Toledo begins the song halfway through this progression i.e. “Beach Life-In-Death” follows this progression-almost. Those familiar with basic music theory know that the I-iii-IV-V chord progression is one of the most common in pop music (if you didn’t know that before, you do now if you don’t care, please bear with me). Listeners get their first hint of this current from the music itself. The aforementioned tempestuousness runs like a current underneath it all. And this is where it gets interesting: While the ex-boyfriend’s contradiction comes across as completely ingenuine, Toledo’s comes across as wholly genuine, and I’ll explain why.įrom the bong hit that opens the song to the skipping CD that ends it, Toledo takes his listeners through lyrical and musical highs and lows, seemingly constructed from many separate yet interconnected poems. ![]() It seems strange that Toledo, just like the author of the viral text, uses more English to correct his mistake. For instance, Toledo muses: “ … wasn’t about you / But it could have been-well no, it couldn’t have.”Īs listeners, we hear this line and wonder why Toledo didn’t just throw the lyric out entirely when he realized that the song couldn’t have been about that person. In the same manner as in the viral text, Toledo contradicts himself throughout the song, often immediately. ![]() In a world with a backspace key it makes no sense for someone to correct themselves using more English.Ĭar Seat Headrest’s song “Beach Life-In-Death” almost falls down this same pit when frontman Will Toledo uses contradiction to capture the tempestuousness inherent in youth and heartbreak. The text went viral because the woman, and everyone else, realized that the ex-boyfriend must have noticed his “mistake” before he sent the text. Oh sorry wrong number.” All in one message. Now, with both time, money and a seven-piece band, Will Toledo's Twin Fantasy do-over is an unveiling of sorts, a clearer examination of being a teen and trying to understand his own muddled emotions.Last year a woman got a text from her ex-boyfriend that read: “I love you too babe. In its original conception, "Nervous Young Inhumans" - with its thickly layered guitars captured on a cheap laptop - buried its lyrics, and subsequently the multidimensional emotions within. It not only looks good, but it's playfulness adds levity to the tension inherent in these teenaged tunes. For my first time directing, I decided to do something super simple so that we could focus on getting material that looked good. "I always wished we would spend less time building up a narrative and more time crafting shots and allowing for spontaneity on set. To introduce the makeover, Will stepped into the role of video director for the first time on "Nervous Young Inhumans." He wrote to tell me that his ideas for directing this video came from frustrations of previous shoots. Will Toledo and his project Car Seat Headrest are stepping into some old shoes, having remade and reimagined the 2011 album (and "Bandcamp masterpiece") Twin Fantasy. ![]()
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