How To Dress Well – Decisions (feat. Yuksel Arslan)

As a purveyor of grey t-shirts, budget jeans, and flip flops, I wouldn’t portray myself with a fashionable sense by any means. But finding an appreciation for How to Dress Well’s Love Remains, out later this month from our friends at Lefse, at least helps me feel like a man with some style. These guys are making some seriously sexy night jams. Basically, if you were playing this disc with my sister around, I’d knock you out. The gauzy, drifty synth textures lay a honeymoon-suite bed for the Justin Vernon-ish falsetto vocals across the album. The lo-fi approach to rhythm and bass allots for loads of space. You’ve heard similar stylings recently from bands like the xx and more recently Gayngs. Tension and desire hit you with levels that range from gentle warming to absolutely-need-it-now. Analogies only partly aside, the whole work is a release.

The project is put together by Tom Krell, a philosophy research fellow in Cologne, Germany whose moonlighting as a 90’s R&B revivalist comes much to our approval. Though there’s plenty of lyrics, the work seems to be mostly a textural, ambient experience. The vocals act more as an instrument, such as on “Lover’s Start,” bouncing with a rhythm familiar of Justin Timberlake. That’s right, THAT sexy. Perhaps the most lyrically present and stand-out track on the album is “You Won’t Need Me Where I’m Goin’” in which Krell confesses “Girl/you won’t ever have to worry about me no more/You don’t ever have think that I’ll be gone for/ You won’t need me where I’m goin’…” Other favorites include the early tone-setter, “Ready for the World” and the most pressing track on the album, “Walking This Dumb (Live).”

Imagining Tom in an apartment, finishing up reading some intense German existential reading and wailing in these high pitches alone over an 808 in a little room does seem a little hilarious to me; Kant inspired boot-knocking. But of course its more than that. The music is carnal and as serious as what you’ll catch if you start playing this too liberally. The unity of direction and loneliness of the album certainly comes across pretty clearly as a solo effort; a pretty heavy task. But then again, so is studying German philosophy, so kudos to Krell all around.

- matthew hunt