Total Loss
How to Dress Well is musician Tom Krell, one of a score of American artists making lo-fi bedroom pop. But his niche is particularly narrow, and it’s difficult to find another singer in the genre capable of setting the mood and hitting the notes that Krell has mastered. He grew up loving R&B, and he clearly learned a few things along the way; the ease with which he coaxes a note into silken bliss or coos atmospherics into a microphone is impressive. *Total Loss* is the Colorado native’s second full-length release, and those who were troubled by the hiss and grit of 2010’s *Love Remains* will be pleased to hear his new appreciation for cleaner, lighter production values. If you’re an indie pop fan who\'s unsure about R&B speaking to you, first give a listen to the slowly building, almost a cappella gem “& It Was You.” If Krell’s own backup harmonies and big, empty-room beats interlaced with crisp shakers and fingersnaps don’t pull you in, well, we might suggest a spiritual intervention. *Total Loss* feels well-named, with hollow piano loops, hazy strings, and sheets of echo coloring the collection with melancholy, while Krell’s voice alternately lifts and devastates.
Tom Krell's intimate second How to Dress Well album uses the common tools of R&B and pop expression-- four-minute songs, autobiography, choruses, confession-- to create a work of poignant and devastating art.
The only bad part about this beguiling, ethereal second album is being harshly snapped out of its dreamlike enchantment by the noisy trappings of the modern day.
On his debut album, 2010's Love Remains, Tom Krell certainly wasn't your ordinary R&B star: a scrawny, dorky, bespectacled…
On his second How to Dress Well album Total Loss, Tom Krell abandons much of the murky mystery of his debut, Love Remains, undescoring the R&B roots of his music.
“The only bad part about flying is having to come back down to the fuckin’ world,” says the kid on the sample opening “Say My Name or Say Whatever,” the third track on Total Loss.
A musical zeitgeist continues with the vocally and instrumentally minimal soaring tall over elaborate production within the R&B world.
Tom Krell has lent his work a subtle weightiness that becomes clear only after repeat listens.
Berlin-based New Yorker Tom Krell has made one of the year's most affecting records, writes <strong>Dave Simpson</strong>