Twin Fantasy

This is no stop-gap, contract filler of a record but rather a perfectionist giving a great album the full workout it deserved.

On the 2018 remake (full title: Twin Fantasy (Face to Face)), Toledo maintains his vulnerability but hides behind layers of noise and production value. ... But if Toledo’s production sensibilities are still a work in progress, his sense of humor and wit continue to shine through.

It’s a neat inversion that yields some of the most thrillingly ambitious indie rock compositions of this decade, though one that occasionally exhausts the listener into submission.

What a glorious sound it is--the highs and lows (sonically and emotionally) are crisper and better defined. [No. 150, p.50]

The new release of Twin Fantasy never panders to the original. Nor does it feel like Toledo is forced to adhere to the limitations of his previous work. It’s a development, not a remake; the full realisation of what was always supposed to be--and it sounds all the more incredible for it.

The age-old saying goes if something isn't broken, don't fix it, but the re-release of Twin Fantasy shows that, seven years later, Car Seat Headrest are capable of re-contextualizing their work in ways that cement the faith that we have in them as revolutionary musicians.

Thanks to the fact that Car Seat Headrest is now a band rather than a solo recording project, there’s more spit and polish to the songs, a level of gloss that Twin Fantasy really benefits from.

Twin Fantasy is not a perfect record—the latter half is bogged down by soundscape-y passages and spoken word, for one thing--but that only validates it as a powerful document of teenaged pain and longing.

There are times when the less charitable might be inclined to shout at Toledo to pull himself together, but Car Seat Headrest increasingly feel like a significant band, and Toledo like an unusual and compelling voice.

Twin Fantasy leaves no doubt that Toledo is a strikingly gifted and thoughtful songwriter who also has a firm grasp of how to make his material work in the studio, and isn't afraid to think on a grand scale.

While it may not carry the same intrigue of a college student self-recording a lo-fi opus between classes, this new Twin Fantasy elucidates the masterfulness of an incisive indie savant whose creative reach had, until recently, exceeded his grasp.

Indulgent? Possibly, but it works, because this record – even the longest tracks--is punchy, witty and razor sharp.

With its tight and at times almost arena-sized arrangements and clean--though not slick--production, the new version of the album, subtitled Face to Face, jettisons that entire aspect of the Twin Fantasy experience. For some who may have had trouble finding an entry point to the songs through the original album's lo-fi haze, this will be good news.

Twin Fantasy marks another leap in ambition. [Mar 2018, p.22]

Like the original, Twin Fantasy 2017 transports us to a unique and fully formed world, where this time the physical geography is still more affecting. [Mar 2018, p.96]

Hardcore aficionados might doggedly stick to the original but for new fans, it's a treat. [Mar 2018, p.107]

The results of Toledo’s re-imagination add up to enough to make this feel like more than just a perfectionist’s pursuit.

Though it often overstays its welcome, with a handful of tracks pushing beyond the 15-minute mark, Twin Fantasy is an ideal starting point for any latent Will Toledo fan.

Though some longtime fans may feel as though some of the imperfections that adorned Toledo’s original DIY bedroom release are lost in translation in this gorgeously polished release, in its new iteration Twin Fantasy is a deeply moving statement from one of indie rock’s freshest young voices.