Twin Fantasy - Our bodies could fall apart at any second.

When to Listen: A reflective afternoon
Accessibility: Very
TLDR: awkwardness of self hate and love.

Re-released (and re-recorded in 2018), Car Seat Headrest’s Twin Fantasy is an album about teenage awkwardness. The album is a set of songs with the singer obsessing over another person, with most songs being addressed to them. In principle, it’s an album about wanting to get close to someone but believing you’re too messed up to make it work. Ah, the teenage experience.

Throughout the album, he sings about everything from drinking, partying, and coming out while drunk to his friends, to the mundane realities of life—all while wishing he could be closer to this other person. Song by song, we hear about what is happening and what he wishes would happen, never quite having the courage to make a move. (Or maybe he has made the move? It’s not entirely clear.) But that’s the point—it’s not about the relationship itself, but what’s going on inside the singer’s head: his self-doubt, anxiety, self-hatred, and longing for something better, wishing for something more.

This could sound bleak and depressing, but throughout each song there is a somber optimism. The music is upbeat and positive (if not raw at times), and the singer remains hopeful. Beach Life-In-Death is filled with comedic quips, Bodies has the tempo and energy of a Strokes song, and throughout the entire album, you’re met with positive, not somber, soundscapes. The music itself isn’t high production value—in fact, it’s middling at best. But it’s an album about adolescence, and adolescence isn’t perfect. It would be a lie to insinuate otherwise.

A re-recording of the even more basic, stripped-back album Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) keeps the rawness of the original while also making it feel more complete. This rawness and its serious-but-not-too-serious take on life is what makes the album so compelling. We all deal with feelings of doubt and self-hate, yet we remain positive and carry on. And that’s maybe the real takeaway here—life and love can be messy, teenage years are awkward, but we remain hopeful. There’s no time to dwell in melancholy. After all, don’t you realize our bodies could fall apart at any second?