Car Seat Headrest have announced a new “rock opera” album called ‘The Scholars’. Check out the lead single ‘Gethsemane’ below.
- READ MORE: Car Seat Headrest – ‘Making A Door Less Open’ review: as confounding as its knowing title suggests
Set for release on May 2 via Matador, it is the first new studio album from the American rock band in five years, following on from 2020’s ‘Making A Door Less Open’.
According to the band, the LP marks a new spiritual era for the members, and the music is set at the fictional college campus Parnassus University. Here, the tracks follow the students and staff “whose travails illuminate a loose narrative of life, death, and rebirth”.
The record has today (March 5) been previewed by the lead single ‘Gethsemane’ – an 11-minute, multi-part epic that captures the motif at the heart of the record.
Describing the character piece that accompanies the song, the band said: “Rosa studies at the medical school of Parnassus University. After an experience bringing a medically deceased patient back to life, she begins to regain powers suppressed since childhood, of healing others by absorbing their pain.
“Each night, instead of dreams, she encounters the raw pain and stories of the souls she touches throughout the day. Reality blurs, and she finds herself taken deep into secret facilities buried beneath the medical school, where ancient beings that covertly reign over the college bring forth their dark plans.”
Check it out below.
According to a new description, the album was also inspired by the members’ experience during the COVID pandemic, when they were forced to scrap their plans as a band and were left facing health struggles.
“It felt like a very technically challenging set because we had spent so many years doing this loud, fast, dirty rock music,” said drummer Andrew Katz, recalling their last LP. “And now we’re doing this more precise, large production type of set. Eventually, it came together, and then we all got sick.”
Frontman Will Toledo continued, saying that the time led to him finding an appreciation for spirituality: “There’s a part of me who’s still a kid who likes a sick day from school. You get to lay around and contemplate the details of life.”
That, he added, eventually led to a “dedication to following spiritual practices,” which informed the album.
You can pre-order ‘The Scholars’ here, and find the album artwork and tracklist below.
Car Seat Headrest’s ‘The Scholars’ tracklist is:
1. ‘CCF (I’m Gonna Stay With You)’
2. ‘Devereaux’
3. ‘Lady Gay Approximately’
4. ‘The Catastrophe (Good Luck With That, Man)’
5. ‘Equals’
6. ‘Gethsemane’
7. ‘Reality’
8. ‘Planet Desperation’
9. ‘True/False Lover’
Alongside the new album, Car Seat Headrest have announced a run of 2025 US headline shows. These include stops at The Anthem in Washington DC, Mission Ballroom in Denver, The Greek in Los Angeles and more.
Find a full list of US shows below. Tickets go on sale this Friday (March 7) at 10am local time and can be found here.
Car Seat Headrest’s US tour dates are:
MAY
16 – Salt Lake City, UT – Kilby Block Party
JUNE
7 – New York, NY @ Governors Ball
28 – Washington, DC @ The Anthem
12 – Denver, CO @ Mission Ballroom
26 – Chicago, IL @ Salt Shed (Fairgrounds)
AUGUST
8 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Greek
SEPTEMBER
12 – Philadelphia, PA @ Highmark Skyline at the Mann Center
27 – Boston, MA @ MGM Music Hall
NOVEMBER
1 – Oakland, CA @ The Fox
In a four-star review of ‘Making A Door Less Open’, NME wrote: “Toledo’s band have pulled into new areas with sophistication. Will this collection alienate meat-and-potatoes fans, as that knowing album title suggests? Perhaps – but it’s unlikely the band will care. Far from experiencing growing pains, Car Seat seem to have had a lot of fun here.”
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