What Do You Think About the Car? has been described as featuring indie rock throughout. In 2015, at age 15, McKenna won the Glastonbury Festival's Emerging Talent Competition, and started writing songs for the album soon after, while still in school. Writing went on for 2 years. McKenna says, "There were a lot of changes, and I think you can hear that within some of the songs on the record. Quite a big part of the album is about change and being confused". He composed most of the album in his bedroom, except "Listen To Your Friends", which was written in Los Angeles. "Brazil" was written when he was 15. McKenna says, "The album is about me being playful and positive about not necessarily happy topics... That's what I'm like as a character. I try not to be too distant from serious topics as well. The two go together." "Paracetamol" was written after learning about the suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn and the media's representation of LGBT communities in general.
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When McKenna was four years old, his family got a new Toyota Previa. In a home video that captured the moment, McKenna's sister asks, "Dec, what do you think about the car?" to which he replies, "I really like it, and now I'm going to sing my new album." The album's opening song, "Humongous" has the audio clip of the exchange as its intro.
Critical reception
On Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, reported an average score of 76 based on 9 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Dork magazine writer Stephen Ackroyd calls the album, "one of the sharpest, most engaging debut albums of 2017. It's not showy – not really – but rather an extended hand into a world where anything feels possible" Dave Simpson of The Guardian calls the album a "cracking debut", noting, "They are protest songs, but sound anything but worthy or world-weary. Instead, they are sun-soaked aural fizz bombs which channel indie rock through his love of David Bowie and ABBA." Thea de Gallier of NME states McKenna, "he narrates his innermost feelings on everything from politics to the media's treatment of transgender suicide with subtlety and skill. Standout 'Make Me Your Queen' is a rare moment of intimacy as he laments the ache of unrequited love, again with a delicacy and wisdom beyond his years."
