Car Seat Headrest made Nervous Young Man in 2013, and it plays like a band trying to hold everything at once: pop songs, rock songs, ballads, and long instrumental passages, all packed into a 129-minute running time. The record wants to sound like a greatest hits collection even though almost none of it has been heard before. That ambition is both the record’s strength and its problem.
Boxing Day Opens the Record
The album starts with Boxing Day, a 15:34 instrumental that sets the tone right away — patient, repetitive, built from a single idea stretched across more than ten minutes. It is the longest track on the record and one of the most discussed, but it does not build much on itself.
We Can’t Afford (Your Depression Anymore) follows with a sharper edge, a song about money and family strain that cuts through the album’s sprawl. Don’t Remind Me and Homes keep the pace steady, both built around simple, direct melodies rather than spectacle.
Afterglow is one of the record’s best moments — a quiet, tender song that stands apart from the surrounding chaos. Jerks and Broken Birds (Rest in Pieces) follow, the latter stretching past eight minutes with a slow, layered build that earns its length.
The Gun Song, at 16:05, is the record’s other long instrumental centerpiece, and it shares Boxing Day’s problem: it is impressive in scale but thin on shape. Goodbye Love is a quick, sharp song that lands after the long stretch before it.
I Can Play the Piano and Crows (Rest in Bigger Pieces mix) return to shorter, tighter territory, with the piano song carrying more weight than its title suggests. I Wanna Sweat and Burning Man sit together as a pair of mid-tempo rock songs that don’t quite rise to the peaks around them.
Dreams Fall Hard and Plane Crash Blues (I Can’t Play the Piano) form another strong pairing, with the blues song drawing on older, simpler structures. Big Jacket and Death at the Movies are the record’s weakest stretch, both feeling like filler that pads out the middle without adding much.
Jus’ Tired, Some Strange Angel, and Knife in the Coffee close the record on a stronger note, with the final track in particular bringing the whole thing back down to earth after nearly two hours of excess.
What Works, What Doesn’t
The strongest parts of Nervous Young Man are its shorter songs — the ones that let the writing breathe without the need for spectacle. The weaker parts are the long instrumentals and the handful of tracks in the middle that feel like they exist only to fill space.
- Boxing Day — ambitious but repetitive
- Afterglow — the record’s high point
- The Gun Song — long, but less focused than Boxing Day
- Dreams Fall Hard — a solid, underrated cut
- Knife in the Coffee — a strong closer
The Verdict
Nervous Young Man is a record that wants to be bigger than it can sustain. Its best songs — Afterglow, Dreams Fall Hard, Knife in the Coffee — are as good as anything Car Seat Headrest has ever done. Its worst songs — Big Jacket, Death at the Movies — are the kind of filler that drags the whole thing down. The 129-minute running time is a statement, but it is also a burden.
The album is at its best when it stops trying to be everything and lets a single song do the work. When it does that, it is a great record. When it doesn’t, it is a long one.
Key facts
– Artist: Car Seat Headrest
– Album: Nervous Young Man
– Release: 2013
– Tracks: 20
– Total running time: 129 minutes
Verdict: 7 of 10
- Boxing Day15:34
- We Can't Afford (Your Depression Anymore)4:39
- Don't Remind Me4:45
- Homes6:30
- Afterglow5:04
- Jerks5:30
- Broken Birds (Rest in Pieces)8:21
- The Gun Song16:05
- Goodbye Love1:48
- I Can Play the Piano5:19
- Crows (Rest in Bigger Pieces mix)4:23
- I Wanna Sweat5:51
- Burning Man5:32
- Dreams Fall Hard6:30
- Plane Crash Blues (I Can't Play the Piano)5:43
- Big Jacket5:04
- Death at the Movies6:54
- Jus' Tired5:26
- Some Strange Angel5:48
- Knife in the Coffee4:25
