How To Dress Well – Total Loss [2012, Acéphale]
There’s a moment on the vigorous “& It Was You” when it all becomes inescapably clear: Krell has officially transcended all those pesky comparisons that have simultaneously crippled his How To Dress Well project as well as catapulted it into indie-fame. His peers like Justin Vernon (another beautiful falsetto voice shrouded amid a blanket of fog) and Abel Tesfaye (an Rn’B aficionado who isn’t afraid to use old-school hip-hop beats to give his choruses a little more punch) and even dubstep-hero Burial are all touchstones for breakthrough album Love Remains, and rightly so. That being said, it’s heartening that Total Loss is a more distinctive step past comparisons into territory all his own.