Being concise isn’t the most rock ‘n’ roll of qualities, but sometimes it’s welcome. ‘Teens of Style’ is a CliffsNotes for Car Seat Headrest; a compilation that reconfigures snippets of Will Toledo’s sprawling, internet-housed back catalogue.
Released by Matador, his new home for future endeavours, it’s a fine entry point and demonstrates in relatively short order why Toledo is a songwriter to keep track of very closely.
His laconic, reverb-drenched drawl may be familiar, but his way with a hook is consistently refreshing and exciting. Lifted from their lo-fi origins, his songs have added indie-rock heft in these new incarnations, having been fleshed out by a living, breathing band.
A fresh lick of paint, though, means nothing if the tunes don’t stack up. This is where ‘Teens of Style’ really hits home. It forms a coherent, superbly paced whole, which is quite remarkable given its disparate beginnings.
The shift is particularly beneficial to the glorious Something Soon, originally released on ‘My Back Is Killing Me Baby’ in 2011, as its chorus rattles forward where its sparse percussion once threatened to run out of steam.
Sunburned Shirts, another from ‘My Back…’, bursts into life in its final throes here as the guitars are dialled up, while certain melodies that once just missed the mark, or arrived buried beneath a Magnetic Fields-style fuzz, now shimmer.
On the other hand, Times to Die and Los Barrachos, from ‘Monomania’, are only tidied up ever so slightly, crucially without detracting from the power possessed by the original takes. There is little sense that Toledo’s earlier records are being dismissed, with ‘Teens of Style’ more a potted history than a total rewrite.
Be excited for what comes next.
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