Car Seat Headrest announce new album, release song 'Can't Cool Me Down'

Car Seat Headrest have returned with a new single and an album announcement. Making a Door Less Open will be released via Matador Records on May 1.

'Can't Cool Me Down' is a genre-blending departure from Car Seat Headrest's usual lo-fi indie rock sound. Frontman Will Toledo retains his signature matter-of-fate lyricism as he sings about performance anxiety, but this time he's accompanied by new synthetic sounds. It sounds modern, yet vintage-inspired all at the same time.

The track rings in a whole new era for the band. Work on Making a Door Less Open began in early 2015 as Toledo kept a goal of creating something completely different in mind. As he began listening to more individual tracks than full albums, he realised he wanted to create a collection of songs with unique energies and visions.

Making a Door Less Open is a "collaboration" with 1 Trait Danger, a project featuring Toledo as a mask-wielding character named Trait and drummer Andrew Katz.

Toledo, writing from the perspective Trait, wrote: "The songs contain elements of EDM, hip hop, futurism, doo-wop, soul, and of course rock and roll. But underneath all these things I think these may be folk songs, because they can be played and sung in many different ways, and they’re about things that are important to a lot of people: anger with society, sickness, loneliness, love…the way this album plays out is just our own interpretation of the tracks, with Andrew, Ethan and I forming a sort of choir of contrasting natures."

Car Seat Headrest's last studio album was 2018's Twin Fantasy, a re-recording of their 2011 album of the same name. Making a Door Less Open will be the first new music since 2016's Teens of Denial.

Read the full statement from Trait here.