The cover art for the past three How To Dress Well albums are strong indicators of their contents: 2010’s Love Remains is packaged in a torch-lit shot of random road-side, Total Loss (2012) has the side profile of a face set like it was part of the landscape, and new album What Is This Heart? is a straight-forward head shot. These images reflect the slow reveal of the man behind it all, Tom Krell, and his movement from echo-chamber obfuscation to a more open, perhaps even optimistic, vision.
This openness was one of the changes implemented on his previous album, but Total Loss was also steeped in a deep sadness and sense of loss. One of its stand out tracks was It Was You, a four-to-the-floor banger that was atypical to the stark remainder of the album, and the obvious progression would be a push in this direction for his third album. Instead, in his expectation-defying fashion, Krell kicks off What Is This Heart? with tinkling piano and an acoustic guitar-based song that could almost be described as folk.
Whatever Krell was going through two years ago has been processed and has reenergised him as a performer. There’s a confidence and clarity to this collection, though also an acknowledgement of his limitations (‘I don’t have the power’ is a key lyric here). He still knows how to build a mood and capture extreme emotions in the smoothest possible way, but What Is This Heart? is considerably less bleak and claustrophobic than his past work.
BY CHRIS GIRDLER
Best Track: What You Wanted
If You Like These, You’ll Like This: Anxiety AUTRE NE VEUT, Nothing Was The Same DRAKE, Die Young COLLARBONE
In A Word:Dressed-up
