Next on Car Seat Headrest’s debut album is Good Sunday. This track brings a lot more to the table lyrically as to the previous (that being Tybee Island horse ghost), and is in fact musically, one of my favorite songs on the album. 1 is in my unprofessional opinion, a very raw album. Will can even be quoted on the album's bandcamp saying that if he had known anyone would have listened to the album, he would have never released it. This leads to a lot of interesting commentary from the perspective of a young man who is starting to become an adult, and the trials and tribulations that follow this.
The song starts strong, opening with these lyrics.
I feel like walking into traffic
I need to learn how to be online”
This appears to be a look into Will's descent into “madness”, which is likely some form of mental struggle. He says he feels like walking into traffic, which further solidifies the idea that he is struggling mentally with an urge to do something to put himself in danger. This doesn’t have to mean suicide, but perhaps an urge to harm himself or let go of control. He follows by “snapping out of it” and claiming to be going crazy by having these sorts of intrusive thoughts. He says he needs to learn how to be online, maybe the past lyrics could be a struggle in dealing with having a social media presence, which, though not at the scale it is today, Will likely had at the time of the album’s release.
Religion can have a million different themes in music. While Will did grow up in the Presbyterian church, he hasn’t spoken on his current personal religious beliefs, and I will not be speaking on behalf of him or speculating on the topic. I am only looking at this from the perspective of a 17 year old Will Toledo. Aside from this, Will did study religion academically. He minored in it along with a major in English at William and Mary. There isn’t much information or speculation online of a possible meaning to these lyrics. I don’t know a lot about religion personally, so my apologies if anything I state is incorrect. Of course it could have nothing to do with religion at all, only using Jesus as an example of one higher and holier than thyself. I do take interest in the change from “Spirit we love you and we forgive you” to “Spirit we love you and we destroy you.” This again can be taken as spirit in oneself, or a kind of Holy Spirit. It could also in some ways mock traditional hymns and songs traditionally sung in churches, which usually reflect the religions beliefs and have some kind of religious message. Or it’s some kind of warped way of getting to the top and then being destroyed by the people who brought you there . Loving Jesus but destroying the spirit, whether that be one that is holy or one’s personal spirit I’m unsure and urge you to decide for yourself, whatever means the most to you. That’s an important idea for all of these, I don’t want to come off and say that I’m right, these are just my interpretations as someone who enjoys Car Seat Headrest.
Now we move to another verse.
No one wants to know what you’re saying ’til you’re speaking in code
(No one wants to know what you’re saying ’til you’re speaking in code) [reversed]
No one wants to know what you’re saying until you’re speaking in code”
I also really enjoy this lyric. Maybe it’s a way of saying nobody cares what you have to say until they don’t understand what you’re saying. When it becomes impossible to drown out the background noise we’re accustomed to, when it’s something we’ve never heard before, we take more time to stop and listen and perhaps try to understand. The use of a reversed lyric is also very interesting, maybe a way to grab the listeners attention and instantly prove his point, nobody cared to know what he was saying until it was said in a way that wasn’t understandable. This is something I think of as an interactive lyric, WIll isn’t just singing out what he thinks, he’s proving to you that he stands correct on the issue.
The chorus of Jesus and the spirit is repeated 3 more times, except for the very last line. Traditionally it is “And we destroy you” which is still said, but in this set destroy you is reversed. Likely to refer to the previous verse. It’s an interesting way to maintain the theme in an album that quite honestly bounces all over the place (and not in a bad way, it’s really good chaos).
The next part is what really grabbed my attention and is possibly the most memorable part of the song in my opinion. It’s a piece of spoken commentary and is read as follows.
“Eugene Debs was the... socialist presidential candidate in the uh, election between him, Taft, Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt
Nobody told me that my earbuds were exposed to the elements”
I really love this line and I honestly have no idea why. It’s just some ramblings of a young Toledo, and I have no clue what it means or how it relates. I don’t want to try and pull a meaning out of it, I think it should be preserved in its natural state. The only information I could find on it was a small note on the Genius music page (which has now been viewed by a mighty 11 people!), which was only the word socialist highlighted with a note of “based.” Thank you for the laugh whoever you are.
(And suddenly we’re driving across the ocean) [reversed]
The last line of the song is actually a sample from an earlier project of an even younger Toledo called Nervous Young Men. It’s taken from a song called AC, which details a bus ride he had taken.
Next is a little on the actual musical elements of the song. It’s fairly monotone and moody, but enjoyable. The entire album was produced on Will’s laptop, which provides some interesting sounds. I don’t know how to describe the way I hear it, it's like stretching a rubber band as far as it will go then slowly returning it to normal. There’s nothing snappy and sharp about it, but it has its own curves which give it a really cool vibe overall. I know nothing about music production, I just like the sounds, and this album has a lot of them. I like the grain that the spoken part has, it reminds me of audio from an old family video camera, enough so to where I can picture this very camera. There’s a lot of really sick recording techniques and such and I wish I knew more about what they all meant, but alas I’ll just listen to them and enjoy what I hear.
Thank you a lot for reading this, I hope you’re enjoying reading as much as I am enjoying writing.
