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. "When I Was in Trouble" introduces Krell's new aesthetic, bathing his falsetto vocals -- now freed of the static and distortion that cloaked them on his debut -- in electronics that manage to be gloomy and glowing at the same time; on "Struggle," reverb surrounds his voice like a halo. Letting his more-or-less naked vocal stand out so clearly offers an entirely different kind of vulnerability than the one he displayed on
Love Remains, but
How to Dress Well still works best when Krell favors the more ethereal side of his music, blurring together his influences into something unique. He does this especially well on the fittingly frosty "Cold Nites," which grows from clacking typewriters into a surprisingly epic lament; "Say My Name or Say Whatever," with its dreamy spoken word passages and blurry synths, is one of the more logical progressions from
Love Remains' mystique. Similarly, "Running Back"'s mix of church-like reverb and a beat-full of pops and sighs finds a happy medium between Krell's debut and his new approach, while "Ocean Floor for Everything" feels like a more literal, lower-pitched
Balam Acab track. Ultimately,
Total Loss reflects a trade-off of one type of emotional expression for another, and the change from the ghostly intimacy of Krell's debut to this clearer, more overt music makes for a prettier, more polished set of songs that are a little less strikingly original than what came before them. Considering how divisive
Love Remains' intentional sonic flaws were, if listeners can hear
How to Dress Well better on
Total Loss, then that counts for something. ~ Heather Phares