The Scholars

AlbumMay 02 / 20259 songs, 1h 10m 37s
Rock Opera Indie Rock Progressive Rock
Popular Highly Rated

Will Toledo’s music as Car Seat Headrest has always *felt* like opera whether he called it that or not—at least, few other indie bands have made the droll monotonies of being an outcast sound so grand. A concept album nominally about a med-school student who discovers her secret powers to heal patients by literally absorbing their pain (yep!), *The Scholars* is both Toledo and his band’s most conventionally “big” album (soaring choruses, dramatic turns, multi-part songs) and its most cryptic, tucking all those big, obvious gestures into the folds of a story that feels just out of reach by design. The short songs hit hardest (“The Catastrophe,” “Devereaux”), but the long ones are where they get to make their weird stadium-sized dreams come true. Case in point, the 19-minute centerpiece “Planet Desperation”: Toldeo howls, “When I get to the pearly gates, will I see you on the inside pointing at me/Mouthing ‘There he is, officer—there’s the prick I warned you about.” Then they get to sound like The Who. Then a little bit like Genesis. Then the hand-drum section comes in.

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6.5 / 10

In aiming to write a rock opera for the playlist era, Will Toledo crafts some of his band’s most inspired compositions—but weighs them down with a confusing plot and endless stylistic changeups.

7 / 10

While there is some serious world building on The Scholars, it's the punchiest Car Seat Headrest have sounded in the best part of a decade.

8.5 / 10

Car Seat Headrest's 'The Scholars' Review

Car Seat Headrest truly embraced the epic here; and it’s paid off in spades.

A psychedelic, classic rock mashup that absorbs and expands on the sound Car Seat Headrest have claimed as their own.

Car Seat Headrest’s ‘The Scholars’ is a critical reminder that rock ‘n’ roll can and often should be an audacious thing.

7.5 / 10

The Scholars by Car Seat Headrest album review by David Saxum for Northern Transmissions. The LP drops on May 2nd via Matador Records

70 %

A rock opera too scholarly? New msuic review by Mark Kidel

7 / 10