Nervous Young Man is the eighth solo album by American musician Will Toledo released under the Car Seat Headrest alias. It was self-released via Bandcamp on August 23, 2013, and served as Car Seat Headrest's final album as a solo project.[1]
A double album, clocking in at two hours and nine minutes, it is the band's longest release to date. Described on Bandcamp as featuring "tracks written from ages 17 to 21", the album was conceptualized as a "greatest hits" album, despite being composed almost entirely of newly written material.[a][2] The title of the album and three of the songs come from Toledo's high school project, Nervous Young Men.
Recording and release
Toledo began recording Nervous Young Man following the release of Car Seat Headrest's seventh album, Monomania. While working on the album, Toledo shared several tracks on Soundcloud in the lead-up to Christmas 2012,[3] before officially announcing the album on Tumblr, on July 15, 2013.[4] However, shortly before the album was scheduled to release, the hard drive for Toledo's laptop crashed, resulting in a partial loss of the album.[5][6] In the following days, Toledo would reach out to those who had downloaded the tracks he previously shared in order to finish uploading the album.[7] Despite this set-back, the album would be released on August 23, 2013, Toledo's 21st birthday.
Nervous Young Man would also be released alongside the outtakes compilation, Disjecta Membra, which was personally emailed out to anyone who purchased the album for five dollars or more within the first year of its release.[8][9] The compilation contained songs that were recorded from "Twin Fantasy era to [2013]" along with more re-recorded songs from the Nervous Young Men project, such as "Napoleon (March into Russia)" and "Please Mr. Pilot".
According to Toledo, the writing process of Car Seat Headrest's tenth album, Teens of Denial, came as a response to fan and critical reaction to Nervous Young Man, along with his own experiences creating the album.[10] In an interview with Loud And Quiet, Toledo stated:
“I think people just had a hard time listening to it because it was so long, on a personal level, I kind of disliked it because a lot of the songs were more interested in songcraft than emotional engagement. I felt like I couldn’t engage with it as soon as the album was done. I struggle to make every song a deep reflection of myself and something I can connect to intimately. But that took a long time to come into shape, even though I know what I wanted to do. Usually knowing what you want to do does take longer to come into shape because you have to reject more material."[10]
Reception
Sean Elliot of The Daily Album praised the record, specifically highlighting opener "Boxing Day", which they described as a 15-minute "coming of age epic" that moves "back and forth between acoustic guitar and vocal confessions, raucous, distorted electric rock interludes, drunken, reverberated rambles ala Johnny Cash, crunchy, electro rock, and somber organ and electronic percussion". Other highlights included "We Can't Afford (Your Depression Anymore)", "Don't Remind Me", "Afterglow", and "Plane Crash Blues (I Can't Play the Piano)".[11]
In a 2016 Reddit AMA, Toledo described the album as "a sleeper hit", adding "I don't know if anyone even listened all the way through at the time."[12]
Track listing
All tracks are written by Will Toledo unless stated.
↑ "Boxing Day", "Big Jacket", and "Crows" were previously released on Boxing Day/I Need Money Not Friends and The Loudness War by Nervous Young Men, and via Cate Wurtz's Lamezone respectively.
↑ The streaming version of "The Gun Song" is subtitled the "No Trigger Version", which removes the elements of "Down by the River".
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