Car Seat Headrest – Faces from the Masquerade Review

Live records serve an important purpose, now more than ever before. Releases are thick and fast. The musician of today is the outmoded embarrassment of tomorrow. Keeping up with the contemporary references and cultural appearances made in this television programme or that TikTok trend is borderline impossible. Live albums, then, serve as a band at their alleged best. Serve up the run of hits and tricks, the new material coupled with a balanced mid-section of firm favourites. It is not for everyone, but the likes of Peter Frampton, Johnny Cash and Cheap Trick all offer some crucial examples of this. Gateways to new music. Car Seat Headrest join the club, hoping nobody bats an eye at Faces from the Masquerade. It is tricky to ignore a double LP, lads.  

A peak in the early 2010s is never a good sign though Car Seat Headrest has simply accepted their heyday and tried to work it into as much as they can. Notably failing to do so in reversing the order of the album, a cheap pull which never worked, the boys are back on stage and let their Twin Fantasy record speak for itself. Slacker tones and touching meaning behind those works, coupled with a few bits and pieces Car Seat Headrest are contractually obliged to include – whether due to recency bias or because they hope to float a tone which never quite sparked for them in the studio. Build yourself from the ground up as Crows does. Reset the brain. If it were possible, people would. Faces from the Masquerade begins with a chance to find yourself as the band does too, their footing a little looser on the stage now – the nervy Brooklyn Steel crowd a fantastic mood setter. 

Will Toledo still holds an exceptional voice but his stage presence is the usual yappy Americanisms of seeing the optimism and potential in a crowd. It ruins the listening a tad, but at least the playing and performing are up to scratch. Hymn is an exceptional piece which captures a surprising energy perhaps not levelled all that often at Car Seat Headrest. Hollywood takes a dive, cheap shots at cheaper scum subjects which has no rise to it. Cracks begin to show in Faces from the Masquerade. A bold move it may be to turn to the crowd for requests, what works for Wheatus works for Car Seat Headrest. Something Soon is a delight, a rising and creative flourish for a live band reaching what is, essentially, the peak of their American indie-oriented progression.  

Live records, then, still present themselves as important entry points into bands who have tried to breach the thick walls of playlist scrutiny. Plenty to love in Faces from the Masquerade. Never too late to join the fun. Sober to Death and Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales is an exceptional pairing and the real core of this live performance. Stick around for what Car Seat Headrest perceive as an encore, but for sane minds listening at home would be labelled the climax of the show. Penultimate track Beach Life-In-Death is a dull number built up by fancy flourishes on the guitar. Go to the store, bring about the mundane interjections – these are the unpromising moments of the mid-2010s leaking through, a period which Car Seat Headrest has managed to pull themselves away from, thankfully in time to record an exceptional live album.