Beach Life-in-Death
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| "Beach Life-in-Death" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single by Car Seat Headrest | ||||
| from the album Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) | ||||
| Released | December 13, 2017 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 13:19 | |||
| Label | Matador | |||
| Songwriter | Will Toledo | |||
| Producer | Will Toledo | |||
| Car Seat Headrest singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
| "Beach Life-in-Death" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Car Seat Headrest | |
| from the album Twin Fantasy | |
| Released | November 2, 2011 |
| Genre | |
| Length | 12:10 |
| Label | Self-released |
| Songwriter | Will Toledo |
| Producer | Will Toledo |
"Beach Life-in-Death" is a song written by American rock musician Will Toledo,[1] that was originally released on Twin Fantasy (2011), his sixth album under his Car Seat Headrest alias. After Car Seat Headrest expanded to become a four-piece band, the song was re-recorded and re-released on December 13, 2017 as the lead single for their album Twin Fantasy (Face to Face) (2018), which is a complete studio re-recording of the original album.
According to Toledo, the idea of writing a song longer than ten minutes was influenced by the music of progressive rock band Pink Floyd,[2] alongside the tracks "The Past is a Grotesque Animal" by Of Montreal and "Looter's Follies" by Destroyer.[3] Toledo would walk around Williamsburg, Virginia thinking about how the different parts of the song would fit together, which contrasted with his songwriting process for previous Car Seat Headrest projects. The writing process for "Beach Life-in-Death" also influenced his songwriting process for the rest of the songs on Twin Fantasy, with Toledo noting:
"I wasn't thinking about music unless I was literally working on it. Planning out “Beach Life-in-Death” and working on it was definitely where the palette of the album took place, where it was going to be this sort of carefully crafted thing that reflected a larger plan, not just a collection of songs."[2]
During the writing and recording of Twin Fantasy, Toledo released demos and snippets of the album's songs on his Tumblr, including "Beach Life-in-Death".[4] "Beach Life-in-Death" was first officially released on November 2, 2011, on Bandcamp along with the rest of Twin Fantasy. Toledo remastered the 2011 version of Twin Fantasy in 2013, noting that "Beach Life-in-Death" was the most different because of added bass.[5]
After signing with Matador Records and completing their tenth studio album Teens of Denial (2016), sessions for the re-recording of Twin Fantasy began in mid-2016, and finished in mid-2017.[6] The re-recording of "Beach Life-in-Death" was surprise-released on December 13, 2017, causing much speculation that a complete re-recording of Twin Fantasy would be released soon. A few weeks later, an Amazon listing confirmed the project.[7] Toledo later confirmed that "Nervous Young Inhumans" was intended to be the lead single, however since Matador wanted to wait until January to announce the album, he asked if he could release the new "Beach Life-in-Death" with no prior announcement or explanation.[3] The cover art for the single was created by Hojin "Stella" Jung,[8] who also contributed the CD booklet art for Twin Fantasy (Face to Face).
Composition
"Beach Life-in-Death" is an indie rock song split into three distinct parts, which are shown in the lyric booklets for both versions of Twin Fantasy. The first and third parts are high energy, while the second part has a slower tempo and is quieter. The song features many lyrical motifs that appear throughout the song and in each part, such as "The ocean washed over your grave", and "Last night I dreamed he was trying to kill you/I woke up and I was trying to kill you". The song also internally references several earlier Car Seat Headrest songs from the album 3, "Beach Death", "Beach Funeral", and "Beach Fagz." Lyrically, the 2011 and 2018 versions of the song are very similar, with the most drastic lyrical differences coming in the second part, which replaces a verse referencing Aubrey Beardsley's art with lines Toledo had written for his cover of "Ivy" by Frank Ocean.[3]