The Seattle four-piece of Toledo (guitar, vocals), Andrew Katz (drums), Ethan Ives (guitar) and Seth Dalby (bass) were a combination of '90s and early 2000s low-fi garage vibes, wrapped up in the anxiety of the social media generation.

Making A Door Less Open is Car Seat Headrest's first album of wholly new material since Teens Of Denial, following the 2018 release of Twin Fantasy, which featured re-imagined songs from Toledo's Bandcamp days.

Making A Door Less Open is more playful than Teens Of Denial. That's also obvious from Toledo adopting a gas mask in the album's publicity shots as his alter-ego Trait.

Toledo has introduced electronic beats and synths to joyful effect on Life Worth Missing and the falsetto-driven Can't Cool Me Down, while the experimental Hymn - Remix and idiosyncratic Famous are indulgent throwaways.

The fame Toledo earned from Teens Of Denial, and his ill-preparedness for it, is a constant theme. On the album's best moment, Weightlifters, Toledo sings "I should start lifting weights/ Cause I believe thoughts can change my body."

There's still classic indie-rock on the anthemic Deadlines (Hostile), but it fails to match Teens Of Denial's Vincent and Drunk Drivers/Killer Whales.

Making A Door Less Open is incorrectly titled. For Car Seat Headrest are band investigating a new dimension of their sound without fully abandoning the aesthetic that dragged them out of the garage and onto the world stage.