How to Dress Well - Lost Youth / Lost You

It’s easy to correlate Tom Krell aka How to Dress Well’s music with despair and very little else. He sounds best drenched in sadness, and some of the best moments from 2014 LP ‘What is This Heart?’ take that route. But according to Krell, new album ‘Care’ is a more compassionate, celebratory glimpse into human decency. And even in the space of ‘Lost You / Lost Youth’’s five minutes, he seems to be honing in on new territory.

“I think I know what love is now / I think I’ve kinda figured it out,” he sings, on a chorus that could easily send Nick Jonas even further stratospheric if he nabbed the rights. In different hands, this would be a moody, chart-topping ballad sung by millions. But in true How to Dress Well style, Krell dresses it up in strange attire, throwing showy guitar solos and dense beats into the same melting pot. It’s not quite all-out joy, but it’s a far cry from HTDW resting on his laurels.

Photo: Ben Tricklebank.