How To Dress Well – Total Loss

How to Dress Well – Total Loss (Domino)

How To Dress Well is the one-man recording project of Tom Krell, a globetrotting lo-fi sort-of-R&B crooner. His 2009 debut full-length, Love Remains, was instrumental to the shift away from chillwave towards witch house and ambient hip hop / R&B. Since Krell was an instigator rather than an imitator of this new style, not to mention one of its finest exemplars, I don’t mind that its follow-up continues in the same vein. According to Krell, Total Loss was made during a very unhappy and confused period, and finds him learning how to ‘lose in a meaningful way and sustain loss as a source of creative energy’.  As his most accomplished-sounding and gorgeous work yet, it succeeds admirably in this regard.

By Carly Blair