Car Seat Headrest is an indie rock band from Leesburg, Virginia, led by singer and instrumentalist Will Toledo. The project gained recognition from the steady stream of albums they put out on Bandcamp from 2010 to 2015.
This track, “Maud Gone,” is off of their album Teens of Style, which was the first to be released through Matador Records. In an interview, Toledo described the process of creating this album and his intentions, saying it was all written and produced by him, and that it was meant to be a tribute to the older Car Seat Headrest material before they started putting out bigger work. Toledo’s goal to recreate the feel of his older work explains why many of the tracks on Teens of Style include lo-fi sound and distorted, messy instrumentals despite Toledo’s proven ability to produce cleaner, fuller sounds.
“Maud Gone” presents a happy medium, incorporating washed-out vocals and a variety of sharp instrumentals. Toledo also includes impressively poetic and ambiguous lyrics on this track. The consistently low notes combined with a soft melody create the perfect mood for staring dramatically out of a car window; which is, in my eyes, a perfect fit for this dreary week.