How To Dress Well – Decisions (feat. Yuksel Arslan)

How To Dress Well (aka Tom Krell) has been busy making legions of free music and casting them off into the blogosphere. Much of HTDW’s catalogue to-date is spectral, barely hovering around your eardrums before evaporating into a sensual mist. Weightless, echoing vocals bob along gaseous beats complemented by ethereal coos, fractions of words often elongated and looped to create their own instrument. The result is mystifying and pleasant, but often hard to grasp, leaving the listener wanting more.

Refreshingly, Decisions is one of the more tangible tracks HTDW has produced. For one, you can actually make out distinct vocals, which bring to mind the gentlest, most vulnerable moments of Bon Iver’s For Emma, Forever Ago. At times Decisions evokes the soul of Annie Lennox (via No More I Love You’s) and dances with the rhythm of early Brian McKnight. His lyrics are stretched out like silly putty then glazed over a gravitational drumbeat that is just enough to keep you from floating away. The gorgeous finished product haunts long after the two and a half minutes end.

Internet buzz has created a red carpet for the release of HTDW’s first full-length record, Love Remains, out September 21. According to his blog, Decisions made the cut along with another 13 remastered selections from self-released material. While delicate, abstract droning has its place, let’s hope Krell continues to harness his sound and bring it a little closer to the physical realm, where its more available for our digestion.