With Teens of Denial, Toledo has practically guaranteed himself a viable career for years to come. The fact he did it while still in his early twenties after laying a foundation of solid self-released records proves even further that his most creative days are probably still ahead of him.
It’s the adequate album to write when you’re on a quest to become something, later to realize that you’ve no idea how to carry on fulfilling that need. It’s a transition that Toledo perfectly captures, one that he’s relieved to have outgrown.
Teens of Style was already great, but Teens of Denial is such a leap forward that it still manages to surprise.
Supplanting the hazy radio qualities of his DIY endeavors, a bold palette of past-era pop melody splashes all over Teens of Denial, which is also mixed beautifully, utilizing just enough restraint on instrumental reverb for the parts to hug one another.
Teens of Denial is a generous record bursting with so many ideas that Toledo seems like he’s rushing to get them out, trying to connect and willing to share personal stories of failure.
Teens of Denial takes its power from its absence of blind spots, its lack of Freudian suppression. Toledo looks long at himself and us, a sort of nauseous survivor of modernity.
Despite clocking in at a whopping 70 minutes, Car Seat Headrest pack enough hooks in to avoid lagging, thanks to Toledo's practice with his lengthy yet phenomenal earlier albums Twin Fantasy and How to Leave Town.
It’s bold, it’s more adventurous than most bands manage in an entire career, when it’s good it’s brilliant but there are patches that are pretty crap. And yet somehow, against the odds, it works.
An enigma wrapped inside an self-depreciating shrug and a scribbled brain-dump; it may be white, male indie-rock, but it’s white, male indie-rock that understands itself perfectly.
Teens of Denial showcases most of the weapons in Toledo’s arsenal: deft wordplay, a vocal style that might be the very definition of ennui, and tight guitar-driven indie rock arrangements that recall Weezer, Beck, and Jonathan Richman.
Conceptual, playful and even rousing at times, Teens of Denial is a perfect example of how to shameless worship the indie gods of the 90’s while still making something that sounds unique, fresh, and perhaps most importantly, demonstrates the sound of an artist hitting their stride and making real and significant progress.
In a time when US indie is thriving ... on Teens Of Denial, Car Seat Headrest makes his case for being leader of the pack.
Teens of Denial contains all the attractive ungainliness of youth and insightfully describes that often stark and desolate period which is the teenage/post grad years. There is a lot to like on the album and it reveals more and gets more addictive with each listen.
Rock history teaches us you can't will a masterpiece into existence, but with Car Seat Headrest's Teens of Denial, Will Toledo has created something like a novel after previously offering us short stories, and it's a piece of rough-hewn brilliance.
Teens of Denial vaults through references to stand alone, rapturous and sincere — a fuzzy framework from the floor of all we know.
His most accomplished work yet. The album is enhanced by watertight production, but its album’s biggest attraction is still Toledo’s lyrics, which are humorous and intelligent without pretentiousness.
It’s hard not to find Teens of Denial at least a little bit exhilarating, because Toledo’s now-fully-formed voice is such a new and powerful one, and because it’s easy to see how young listeners will find an entire universe to behold within.
Teens Of Denial, Toledo's first "proper" studio LP, amplifies that ambition – horns, organs, 11-minute ballads – over 69 minutes. In such, it recalls a phenomenon as '90s as 12-eye Docs: incredibly long albums.
By and large ... the music here is undermined by a sense of redundancy.
To anoint Toledo the voice of a generation is premature; Teens of Denial looks no further forward than the next update to Cards Against Humanity with the First World problems of album opener “Fill in the Blank”.
Yeah, no, I'm rewriting this one, cause I have a lot to say about this one.
This album a lot of the time is sorta talked about by fans, myself included at the time, in the shadows of other albums under the CSH name like Twin Fantasy, How To Leave Town, since those albums are a lot more forward in why they are amazing. However, after many many more relistens and growing with it for the past 2-3 years, I'm happy now to report that this album is now among the greats for me.
"Teens Of ... read more
The pinnacle of a coming of age story !
I have very few complaints about this album, the only song I could call bad or forgettable is probably unforgiving girl, the rest is absolutely immaculate.
This is a loose concept album, it follows the protagonist Joe, who is basically just a self insert for Will (but this time a lot less gay), throughout the record we see him preform a bunch of juvenile acts which he always regrets almost immediately. He borderline abuses drugs throughout the record, ... read more
1 | Fill in the Blank 4:04 | 96 |
2 | Vincent 7:45 | 94 |
3 | Destroyed by Hippie Powers 5:03 | 95 |
4 | (Joe Gets Kicked out of School for Using) Drugs with Friends (But Says This Isn't a Problem) 5:37 | 93 |
5 | Not What I Needed 4:31 | 89 |
6 | Drunk Drivers / Killer Whales 6:14 | 97 |
7 | 1937 State Park 4:00 | 93 |
8 | Unforgiving Girl (She's Not An) 5:26 | 87 |
9 | Cosmic Hero 8:31 | 95 |
10 | The Ballad Of The Costa Concordia 11:30 | 97 |
11 | Connect the Dots (The Saga of Frank Sinatra) 6:07 | 90 |
12 | Joe Goes to School 1:17 | 84 |
#1 | / | Diffuser |
#3 | / | Paste |
#3 | / | Salon |
#3 | / | Treble |
#4 | / | Rolling Stone |
#4 | / | Rolling Stone (Australia) |
#5 | / | Earbuddy |
#5 | / | For The Win |
#5 | / | No Ripcord |
#5 | / | Uproxx |