How to Dress Well
What is This Heart? (Weird World/Domino)
16/20
Tom Krell’s encyclopedic RnB and pop influence list had to be beckoned out on 2012’s Total Loss. Sometimes a Bobby Brown-style vocal lick or an Aaliyah-esque ad-lib would only break through the noise if you really went looking out for it. But for much of What Is This Heart? that delicacy gets toppled by a far more unsheltered guide through Krell’s record collection. Be it the mid-song vocal breakdown on Words I Don’t Remember, or the hymnal opening to Pour Cyril which sounds like a less sleazy version of Like A Prayer, the linchpin of this record is melody and vocal trickery. While the album’s closer plays host to a paradisal beat, it is little more than a costume for Krell’s falsetto acrobatics, all of which makes for a stirring finale.
Having thematically dissected the nature of loss two years ago, Krell continues his voyage into the intricacies of heartbreak and the puzzling details of despondency. What Is This Heart? may be glossier than its predecessor, but it’s no less human. And by channelling the sheen of The Supremes with the candidness of Kendrick Lamar or Sun Kil Moon, How To Dress Well continues to flourish by staying true to what he knows and even truer to how he feels.
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Words: Duncan Harrison
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