HEAR THIS: How To Dress Well
Photo courtesy of Illias Teirlinck (illiasteirlinck.tumblr.com)
If the chillwave auteurs strove to tape-record the distant memory of AM-friendly pop and commercial jingles, How To Dress Well takes a similar approach to ’90s R&B music. On his debut album, 2010’s Love Remains, the Chicago-based artist Tom Krell channeled the involuntary soundtrack to his generation’s upbringing through dense layers of meditative gloom. This year, he follows-up that effort with music soaked knee-deep in misery and grief, a total atmosphere fueled by personal loss and struggle with depression. Ironically, How To Dress Well’s songs are as riveting as the catchy R&B backbone burried beneath the omnipresent malise, and at times come very close to James Blake’s deconstructed future pop. They are dangerously beautiful and queerly comforting.