Times to Die

As Car Seat's latest single makes clear, the match between band and label wasn't inevitable: "Times to Die" was allegedly born as a scrap of melody called "Fuck Merge Records". Toledo softened the message as he expanded the song, removing the middle finger aimed at North Carolina and inserting a lofty religious allegory that equates label contracts with sacred rituals involving hooded robes and maybe even human sacrifice. Toledo rewrote "Times to Die" one more time for Car Seat's Matador debut, Teens of Style, inserting a verse about how label founder Chris Lombardi might in fact be a divine entity. "Got to have faith in the one above me," he deadpans. "Got to believe that Lombardi loves me." https://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/17729-car-seat-headrest-times-to-die/