Teens of Style is not technically Car Seat Headrest’s debut, but a greatest hits, a career retrospective, a rarities comp, and a remix album all rolled into one. In the last five years, frontman and band mastermind Will Toledo has been churning out a steady stream of music, recording first in his family car and later in his dorm room at Virginia Commonwealth University. Before signing to Matador Records, he had released via Bandcamp 11 albums of original tunes, an output that approaches that of his hero, Robert Pollard. For his proper debut, Toledo re-recorded 11 older songs, fleshing out fairly skeletal arrangements to create towering monuments to indie rock. The result sounds like both the closing of one door and the opening of another.

These songs sprawl in ways they never did before, in ways they never could before, but what’s astonishing is just how much detail and nuance Toledo gets out of the lo-fi setting. His band layers chiming power-pop post-punk guitars, thrumming synths, and intricate Beach Boys harmonies to say something essential about millennial angst. Especially given its lyrical shout-outs to Michael Stipe and Matador Records exec Chris Lombardi, among other insiders, the whole thing could have sounded purely academic—the sound of a young man playing to his record collection. Instead, Teens of Style explores the ways that our favorite music and our biggest heroes can serve as conduits to the larger world, and Toledo sings like he can’t wait to provide that experience for others. —Stephen M. Deusner