“You can love again, if you try again.”

[Enter Stage]

Everyone’s favourite internet obsessed band is back!

…Well one of my favourites. The lovechild of Virginia-born Will Toledo, what once started out as a simple solo project, coalescing into a full band project, returns after 5 years with “The Scholars”, an album that, at its underlying core, is perhaps the band’s most daring, yet atypical release.

Perhaps The Scholars had to be different, many weren’t left impressed with 2020s “Making a Door Less Open” and whilst I didn’t understand the backlash to a certain extent, it was a notable stepdown from the sheer magnum opus that was 2018s “Twin Fantasy”. Not everyone can strike lightning in a bottle in succession.

But how atypical can Toledo get, the same guy that made ‘Beach Life-In-Death’, the same guy whose vocals bellowed and beckoned in the climax of ‘Famous Prophets’?

Well, that is easy, set your new album in a fictional university called Parnassus, and have the album focus on a goddamn goat character called Beolco that believes himself to be the reincarnation of some long-lost beloved playwright called “The Scop”. And there is me thinking that we had already seen enough of Toledo’s wonderous storytelling.

At its core, The Scholars is still a CSH album. It is a record which explores yearning, existentialism, identity and control over one’s life, all while wrapping these themes and threads into a rock opera-led story that only the nerdiest of nerds will investigate. So how is The Scholars atypical?

[Centre Stage Left]

Is it in the themes? No not really, tracks like the sombre “Lady Gay Approximately”, where a mother learns to accept her son “Malory”, an old dove, for being a trans man. Or the anthemic “Deveraux”, where the titular character, a crocodile struggles to accept his traditional family name and ways, thus having an identity crisis. These are not new themes for Toledo, maybe new avenues to explore them.

[Centre Stage Right]

Is it the sound? Also no. CSH wear the veil of being the internet’s indie slacker rock kings with great pride, opener “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay with you)” may be the highlight of it all, a slow, patient two-minute intro, lyrics in foreign languages, before six minutes of excellent CSH thrills.

[Pause. Then Downstage Centre, under the spotlight.]

…So what? What is unusual about The Scholars? Well, past CSH songs are renowned for their stunning climaxes. Finales are important for any song, but that may be the most truthful when discussing CSH. The Scholars to me marks a shift away from those explosive, reality-shattering climaxes. Even in the biggest of suites, the climaxes do not compare to the band’s previous works. But that shift leads to the tracks having a new texture, which actually suits the album in the end.

The bulk of this can be seen in the album’s central cornerstone, 40 minutes of CSH Rock Opera gold through ‘Gethsemane’, ‘Reality’, and the 19-minute suite that is ‘Planet Desperation’. Gethsemane is sprawling and spiralling, hitting you back and forth like the world’s most anxious yo-yo, and the constant repetition of “you can love again, if you try again” in its closing minutes is impactful and catchy.

Reality and Planet Desperation see guitarist Ethan Ives deliver a new dynamic with his vocals. On the former, Ives is initially centre stage but eventually comes to complement Toledo as a supporting member, as the song slowly crescendos, then descends, before relapsing, supplemented with the unnerving line of “The Earth fell out from under me” that loops over and over.

On ‘Planet Desperation,’ officially the band’s longest ever song, Ives finds himself the main attraction yet again, but this time his performance is lumbering, almost gothic like, set to distant keys and consistent drums. It opens the track up to be the start of a seeming grand finale. A killer solo rips for half a minute just under halfway through, before Ives reclaims centre stage for his final act, now displaying a softer tone to his voice, like he is a soft angel speaking over our characters action’s. Oh, and let us not forget drummer Andrew Katz, whose brief vocals in the final part of this epic opera are the antithesis of Ives’ vocals, they sound otherworldly, but in a demonic sense, an evil inner thought perhaps. Planet Desperation closes out where we began, the repeated line of “you can love again if you try again”. At this point Toledo, I think I have loved again!

[Silence…]

[Sit down, relax yourself]

And to close out after the feverous dream heard before us, ‘True/False Lover’ is upbeat, with guitars that dance and show-off, and a seeming aim to end the album on a fun, more playful note. Beolco got to imitate his playwright idol in the end.

The Scholars is…a lot. From the music that shifts up and down into operatic magic, to high-key indie rock, and do not even get me started on the concept, calling it a mouthful is an understatement. But Toledo and co. decided to go brave and bold with The Scholars. And they passed with flying colours.

[Exit Stage.]

Car Seat Headrest: The Scholars – Out 2 May 2025 (Matador)

Seat Headrest – “CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)” (Official Music Video)