Album Review: How To Dress Well - The Anteroom

During the mid-‘00s How To Dress Well led the charge for alternative R&B artists. His 2012 album Total Loss remains a hallmark of the genre but 2016’s Care was a disappointing release from the man christened Tom Krell. The good news is that fifth album, The Anteroom, is a return to form for the charismatic American.

Look past the unusual song titles and you’re presented with the past two years of Krell’s life in all its fragile glory. His soft falsetto aches with raw emotion on the lo-fi Body Fat and explores futuristic electronica of the upbeat suite of Nonkilling 3 | The Anteroom | False Skull 1. There’s a claustrophobic feel to the industrial A Memory, The Spinning Of A Body | Nonkilling 2 that envelops you before the near six-minute Nonkilling 6 | Hunger brings a sense of vibrancy to the record with its pulsating piano line and punchy percussion.

Krell merges explorative sounds with moments of spoken word and high tempo electronica on songs about loneliness, abandonment and finding one's self in a post-Trump world. It might be a tad too experimental for those accustomed to Krell’s standard lo-fi offerings, but The Anteroom is an engrossing listen that celebrates his fractured take on pop music.