Hollywood (Car Seat Headrest song)

The song was described by Spin as Car Seat Headrest's "aim to make a big leap into alternative rock". The staff further described the song to feature "familiar heavy riffs", "a big hook" and "heavy grooves".^[1] Toledo commented that the song was "about Hollywood as a place where people go to make their fantasies come to life, and they end up exploiting other people and doing terrible things to maintain their fantasy".^[4] In Pitchfork's review of the associated album, critic Ian Cohen described the lyrics as "Eephus pitch" and called it "something that destabilizes through counter-intuitive simplicity".^[5]

Writing for Pitchfork, Ian Cohen compared the song as Toledo's "version of Weezer's 'Beverly Hills'" and described the concept as "catchy" and "banal".^[5] Upon reviewing the associated album, Jon Blistein of Rolling Stone called the track as one of the most "divisive".^[6] Writing for The Observer, Emily Mackay wrote that the song is "pleasingly punchy, but brought down by facile lyrics".^[2]

In a less positive review, Alexis Petridis of The Guardian described the track as Making a Door Less Open's "dead thud". Petridis stated: "a conflation of guitar and raw-throated rapping in which the spirit of 1 Trait Danger seems rather too evident, self-consciously wacky shrieked vocals and all."^[7]

The release of the track was accompanied by an animated music video. It was directed by Sabrina Nichols.^[8] In the animated music video, Toledo appears as his alter ego, Trait, wearing a gas mask, as he takes a journey through Hollywood.^[9][10]