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Will Toledo has never been at a loss for words. As a band that regularly flirts with the seven-minute mark \u2014 and often<\/a> pushes past<\/a> ten<\/a> \u2014 Car Seat Headrest (and their frontman) can hardly be described as bereft. 2011\u2019s Twin Fantasy<\/em>, an album so quintessentially Car Seat Headrest that its album art became the band\u2019s unofficial <\/a>mascot, has not one<\/a>, but two<\/a> songs that tower over this 10-minute mark. In fact, the remainder of the album\u2019s songs creep past five minutes, save for a track or two. The Scholars<\/em> is certainly no exception to this verbosity; the nine-track album clocks in at an extensive runtime of an hour and 10 minutes. Car Seat Headrest uses this duration to craft a dense, theatrical rock opera with instrumentals and narratives coated in a shimmery sheen of cosmic radiation and an unshakable layer of campus library dust.<\/p>\n The runtime of The Scholars<\/em> is seemingly the only commonality between this album and the remainder of Car Seat Headrest\u2019s catalog. Indeed, there are layers of novelty inherent to the album. Most obviously woven into The Scholars<\/em>\u2019 rock opera infrastructure is its fictional narrative. The story of the album is a meandering web between an eight-person cast at the fictional Parnassus University, as well as the nearby Clown College.<\/p>\n The narrative is enigmatic, revealed largely through cryptic lyricism and notes accompanying the physical CD. There are sonic differences too \u2014 Car Seat Headrest tinkers with David Bowie-esque progressive rock. Will Toledo steps back, sharing in an interview with Rolling Stone that he served as more of a kind of organizer than a composer <\/a>this time around. The result is a much more varied, colorful soundscape, with a newfound revolving door of vocalists and jazzy guitar flourishes where there might have previously been a power chord. This is Car Seat Headrest operating at their most ambitious, continuing to push their creativity 12 albums later.<\/p>\n The best moments on the album capitalize on a controlled variant of the band\u2019s restless creative momentum. \u201cReality,\u201d featuring lead vocals from guitarist Ethan Ives, is the sprawling story of The Chanticleer\u2019s (an orange cat pictured on various album artworks) alleged early death, revealed through enigmatic lyricism, the libretto and a Car Seat Headrest WebQuest<\/a>. The Chanticleer is the drummer for a band of Clown College students. He also appears to serve as a pseudo-narrator. The aforementioned libretto<\/a>, an accompaniment for the project, states \u201cThe Chanticleer, apparently the victim of madness or an early death, has vanished from the environs.\u201d \u201cReality\u201d intertwines the narratives of The Chanticleer in the afterlife and the aftermath of his passing.<\/p>\n