ALBUM REVIEW: How to Dress Well- What Is This Heart?
Back in 2010, when everyone went through that PBR&B explosion (the weakest part of this R&B renaissance that we’ve been experiencing), we got the debut album from Brooklyn’s Tom Krell, aka How to Dress Well. The lo-fi and under-produced Love Remains was underwhelming, just like all of the bedroom pop that filled up MP3 blogs that year. However, much like the other artists from that movement that still have consistent outputs today, he was able to transcend this simplicity. 2012’s spacious and atmospheric Total Loss was one of the best record released that year, and showed Krell come into his own as a songwriter. Krell’s latest record finds him expanding elements of Total Loss with some more bare bones production akin to Love Remains. The results are stunning.
Even though Krell has never been a “strong” singer, per se, his silky and agile falsetto has always been able to work with his songs. Here, his vocals absolutely carry, matching the exciting electronic production throughout the record. The way he accents his words and the warmth his voice provides makes every song here glow beyond its aesthetic surface. While Total Loss had plenty of bright tracks on it, What is This Heart? has a far more contemplative style that glows in the dark. Plus, there’s some great vocal modulation that creates this darker mood. The brooding Face Again is absolutely devastating, and this is assisted by the deep bass vocal that backs Krell. This modulation comes up again at the beginning of Pour Cyril, where Krell backs himself as a backup singer to a gorgeous effect. The high note that Krell reaches at the end of Repeat Pleasure’s bridge isn’t loud, but it’s still powerful nonetheless.
ALBUM/MIXTAPE REVIEW: The Rosebuds- Love Deluxe (The Rosebuds Perform Sade)
I actually have seen The Rosebuds live. In July 2011, they opened for Bon Iver on the opening night of the national tour. They were fine enough, they had some nice folk vibes and some catchy tunes. I enjoyed them enough, even if they didn’t exactly stick out. Then a few days ago, they released this free album, a cover of Sade’s Love Deluxe. A smooth soul album. Needless to say, I was a bit confused. And even after listening, I’m still rather confused.
They covered the entire album, front to back. Now, folk has earned a lot of R&b influence as of late (Thanks to Bon Iver). However, this seemingly pushes the trend to a ridiculous extreme. The opener, No Ordinary Love, doesn’t really change the instrumentation enough from the original to make it interesting (Save some slightly louder percussion). Lead singer Ivan Howard’s singing on this track (And pretty much every other one) comes across as a bit awkward and forced.
In fact, this whole tape comes across as a bit awkward and forced. The “Whoa-ohs” and “Uh-huhs” at the beginning of Feel No Pain nearly made me gag. This is less of a fully realized project and more of a drunken Karaoke night. Except the only songs you can singer are from Sade’s The Love Deluxe. And the only people singing is your awkward white friend from accounting.
Even a lot of the instrumentation here feels really out of place. The guitars on Feel No Pain are very odd for the group, as are all the synths thrown around throughout the album. Plus, there’s no emotion anywhere to be found on this tape. They’re just playing the notes. It’s as if Howard is just singing random words. Which isn’t how it should work, because Sade’s music is just jam packed with emotion. This rendition is jam packed with cheese.
Some of the tracks are alright. Couldn’t Love You More sounds pretty good (if not a bit repetitive). And the sax on Bullet Proof Soul sounds alright. But outside of that, this entirely nonsensical project just comes across as awkward and forced. A tribute gone wrong. Influences over-influencing. It’s just mediocre.
This tape might just be some kind of a throwaway, but that doesn’t matter to me. Regardless of whether it’s a real project or just a fun little side thing they did because they were bored, it’s still pretty awful. I’d rather just listen to Sade’s album. and just leave The Rosebuds to their usual (Not R&B) style.
Summary: The Rosebuds’ cover of The Love Deluxe is influenced a bit too much, and comes across as more awkward and forced than earnest and smooth
Choice Cuts- Couldn’t Love You More, Bullet Proof Soul
1/5
You can stream and download the entire tape below.
ALBUM REVIEW: How To Dress Well- Total Loss
How To Dress Well, real name Tom Krell, is an experimental R&B/ethereal singer from Brooklyn, and Total Loss is the singer’s sophomore effort. HTDW has been part of the rising “PBR&B” trend that’s been going on since he broke out in 2010. Along with other R&B artists such as The Weeknd, Frank Ocean, and X/O (All with varying degrees of success), the development has made R&B music that is accessible and geared towards Indie Music crowds. While I did like his debut, Love Remains, it was a bit lo-fi for my personal taste; especially for the genre at hand. However, his EP from last year, Just Once, managed to take a step in the right direction, and it continues here.
HTDW has a very high falsetto that is used for a majority of the album, and he’s great at using it. He hits notes and melodies with a sense of power that you just don’t get from a lot of falsettos. The only singer who really has a similar voice right now would probably be The Weeknd’s Abel Tesfaye. He’s carried his talent from his last album and refined it to really work well with the new production.
The new production is what really got me about this album. The biggest issue with Love Remains was that it felt under-produced. Krell has a huge voice and the quiet, lo-fi production didn’t assist it at all. This time around, the production is glossier. I wouldn’t say that it’s bright, but rather more spacious. Each song sounds like it fills a huge concert hall, with the sounds bouncing off the walls. It’s a huge sound that is absolutely beautiful and matches very well with Krell’s voice.
Other elements that carry over from his debut include some R&B style percussion and bass, which makes a lot of sense here. Even if this album has a lot more ambient elements as backing instrumentation, it’s a lot more rhythmic. Percussion drives every song around like any R&B song you’d here from the likes of old school R. Kelly and Maxwell. This element was in some parts of Love Remains, but here it just works a lot better. Everything here works a lot better.
The diversity in sound here is also greatly improved. Sonically, everything matches. But the problem with Love Remains was that it really didn’t switch up any of its sound well enough. Here, you get spacious, beautiful songs (Say My Name or Say Whatever) mixed in with some solid dance tracks (The this-song-really-grew-on-me & It Was U). Every R&B tends to mix it up, but normally the more upbeat tracks tend to fall on their faces. Here they stand in line just fine with the rest of the tracks.
This album, through both the spacious production and some added instrumentation, also manages to win me over with gorgeous instrumentation. On World, I Need You, Won’t Be Without You (Proem), some piano-esque sound begins, followed by some gorgeous strings, which all meshes together beautiful. That instrumental nearly brought a tear to my eye. Then Struggle has some thumping bass, and synths soaring over everything, showing off an aggressive sort of beauty. There’s also a lot of ambiance on every track that manages to be both gripping and gorgeous. Again, this is where the production on this album really meshes better with HTDW, since his big voice and style requires bigger production.
This album is a huge improvement over his last album, it’s just…I get lost in it. Really great.
Summary: A huge improvement over his debut, Total Loss changes up the production style to make some absolutely gorgeous soundscapes that match How To Dress Well’s vocals fantastically.
Choice Cuts- Say My Name or Say Whatever, & It Was U, Talking To You, Ocean Floor For Everything
5/5
Stream/Download & It Was U and Ocean Floor For Everything below. Total Loss is out now on Acéphale
Vantage Point Music 