Nervous Young Man
{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}}
{{Infobox album
| name = Nervous Young Man
| type = studio
| artist = Car Seat Headrest
| cover = Car Seat Headrest Nervous Young Man new cover.jpg
| caption = Cover used since 2017.
| alt = Three small pictures on a white wall.
| released = August 23, 2013
| genre = * Indie rock
| length = 129:23
| label = Self-released
| producer = Will Toledo
| prev_title = Starving While Living
| prev_year = 2012
| next_title = Disjecta Membra
| next_year = 2013
| misc =
}}
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.{{Cite web |date=2015-12-10 |title=Bandcamp Got Car Seat Headrest Signed. Your Favorite Indie Act May Be Next. |url=https://www.inverse.com/article/8994-bandcamp-got-car-seat-headrest-signed-your-favorite-indie-act-may-be-next |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=Inverse |language=en}}
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.{{efn|"Boxing Day", "Big Jacket", and "Crows" were previously released on Boxing Day/I Need Money Not Friends, The Loudness War by Nervous Young Man, and via Cate Wurtz's Lamezone respectively.}}{{Cite web |title=Nervous Young Man, by Car Seat Headrest |url=https://carseatheadrest.bandcamp.com/album/nervous-young-man |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=Car Seat Headrest |language=en}} The title of the album and three of the songs come from Toledo's high school project, Nervous Young Men.{{Cite web |last=Terich |first=Jeff |date=2016-06-15 |title=Perpetual Nervousness: Car Seat Headrest’s Will Toledo Charts a Path of Personal Growth |url=https://americansongwriter.com/perpetual-nervousness-car-seat-headrests-will-toledo-charts-path-personal-growth/ |access-date=2025-04-14 |website=American Songwriter |language=en-US}}
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,{{Cite web |last=carseatheadrest |title=CSHristmas Special |url=https://carseatheadrest.tumblr.com/post/38185204071/cshristmas-special |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Tumblr}} before officially announcing the album on Tumblr, on July 15, 2013.{{Cite web |last=carseatheadrest |title=car seat headrest |url=https://carseatheadrest.tumblr.com/post/55534845575/my-next-album-nervous-young-man-is-pretty-much |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=Tumblr}} 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.{{Cite web |last=carseatheadrest |title=car seat headrest |url=https://carseatheadrest.tumblr.com/post/58936442898/opened-up-my-computer-last-night-and-couldnt-get |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Tumblr}}{{Cite web |last=carseatheadrest |title=hard drive is dead. died in the night. |url=https://carseatheadrest.tumblr.com/post/59026578191/hard-drive-is-dead-died-in-the-night |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Tumblr}} 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.{{Cite web |last=carseatheadrest |title=car seat headrest |url=https://carseatheadrest.tumblr.com/post/59585405638/if-anyone-downloaded-the-track-dreams-fall-hard |access-date=2024-06-11 |website=Tumblr}} Despite this set-back, the album would be released on August 23, 2013, Toledo's 21st birthday.
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.{{Cite web |title=Car Seat Headrest cover story: Will Toledo's 12-album overnight success story |url=https://www.loudandquiet.com/interview/car-seat-headrest-cover-story-will-toledos-12-album-overnight-success-story/ |access-date=2024-04-30 |website=Loud And Quiet |language=en-US}} 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."
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)".{{Cite web |date=2016-06-23 |title=Nervous Young Man by Car Seat Headrest {{!}} The Daily Album |url=http://thedailyalbum.com/recommended-nervous-young-man-car-seat-headrest/ |access-date=2024-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623182656/http://thedailyalbum.com/recommended-nervous-young-man-car-seat-headrest/ |archive-date=2016-06-23 }}
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."{{Cite web |last=notcarseatheadrest |date=2016-05-06 |title=I started writing To… |url=http://www.reddit.com/r/indieheads/comments/4i6ad6/im_the_band_car_seat_headrest_ama/d2vgeqo/ |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=r/indieheads}}
Track listing
{{Track listing
| all_writing = Will Toledo unless stated.
| headline = Nervous Young Man track listing{{efn|Tracks 1-10 are referred to as "Love" and tracks 11-20 are referred to as "Death"}}
| title1 = Boxing Day
| length1 = 15:35
| title2 = We Can't Afford (Your Depression Anymore)
| length2 = 4:45
| title3 = Don't Remind Me
| length3 = 4:45
| title4 = Homes
| length4 = 6:41
| title5 = Afterglow
| length5 = 5:04
| title6 = Jerks
| length6 = 5:30
| title7 = Broken Birds (Rest in Pieces)
| length7 = 8:22
| title8 = The Gun Song
| note8 = contains lyrics and elements of the song "Down by the River", written by Neil Young{{efn|The streaming version of "The Gun Song" is subtitled the "No Trigger Version", which removes the elements of "Down by the River".}}
| length8 = 16:05
| title9 = Goodbye Love
| length9 = 1:48
| title10 = I Can Play the Piano
| length10 = 5:20
| title11 = Crows (Rest in Bigger Pieces Mix)
| length11 = 4:24
| title12 = I Wanna Sweat
| length12 = 5:52
| title13 = Burning Man
| length13 = 5:33
| title14 = Dreams Fall Hard
| length14 = 6:31
| title15 = Plane Crash Blues (I Can't Play the Piano)
| length15 = 5:43
| title16 = Big Jacket
| length16 = 5:05
| title17 = Death at the Movies
| length17 = 6:54
| title18 = Jus' Tired
| length18 = 5:27
| title19 = Some Strange Angel
| length19 = 5:49
| title20 = Knife in the Coffee
| note20 = contains lyrics of the song "Time Has Come Today", written by Joe Chambers and Willie Chambers
| length20 = 4:26
| total_length = 129:23
}}
Personnel
''Disjecta Membra''
{{Infobox album
| name = Disjecta Membra
| type = compilation
| artist = Car Seat Headrest
| cover = Disjecta Membra Car Seat Headrest.webp
| caption =
| alt =
| released = August 23, 2013
| genre = * Indie rock
| length = 78:25
| label = Self-released
| producer = Will Toledo
| prev_title = Nervous Young Man
| prev_year = 2013
| next_title = How to Leave Town
| next_year = 2014
| misc =
}}
Disjecta Membra is the second compilation album released by American musician Will Toledo under the Car Seat Headrest alias. It was personally emailed out to anyone who purchased the album for five dollars or more within the first year of its release.{{Cite web |date=2024-04-17 |title=Replay: Car Seat Headrest's 'Disjecta Membra' is a Buried Treasure {{!}} The Loyola Phoenix |url=https://loyolaphoenix.com/2024/04/replay-car-seat-headrests-disjecta-membra-is-a-buried-treasure/ |access-date=2024-04-30 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=carseatheadrest |title=Nervous Young Man, by Car Seat Headrest |url=https://carseatheadrest.tumblr.com/post/95234652536/nervous-young-man-by-car-seat-headrest |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=Tumblr}} 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".
= Track listing =
{{Track listing
| total_length = 78:25
| all_writing = Will Toledo
| title1 = Endpiece
| length1 = 0:42
| title2 = Please Mr Pilot
| length2 = 3:13
| title3 = 2:24
| length3 = 2:57
| title4 = The Hard Part
| length4 = 3:36
| title5 = Sound Man / Low Fidelity
| length5 = 5:12
| title6 = Napoleon (March Into Russia)
| length6 = 6:07
| title7 = Drunk on a Work Night!
| length7 = 1:20
| title8 = Love Me Too Much
| length8 = 3:28
| title9 = Dream: Encounter on Smoke Mountain
| length9 = 10:00
| title10 = Sinner
| length10 = 5:28
| title11 = When Will My Man Come?
| length11 = 6:57
| title12 = Hi Life
| length12 = 4:02
| title13 = AC
| length13 = 2:48
| title14 = If Not, Then Oh Well
| length14 = 5:57
| title15 = Memories
| length15 = 5:32
| title16 = KS
| length16 = 6:36
| title17 = Unfinished: Pain Star (If Heaven Is Full of People...)
| length17 = 4:39
}}
Notes
{{notelist}}