As How to Dress Well, Tom Krell makes ghostly, affecting R&B. While he was living in Brooklyn, Krell performed live experimental music as How to Dress Well by looping layers of his voice, and he began recording under that name after moving to Berlin. He released the first How to Dress Well EP, The Eternal Love, in October 2009 as a free download via his blog, and more EPs followed through April 2010. Krell signed to Lefse Records, which released his first official single, Ready for the World, in July 2010; his acclaimed debut album, Love Remains, arrived that October. Two years later, Krell returned with Total Loss, a more cleanly recorded set of songs inspired by trying to be positive in the face of adversity that featured co-production by XL Records executive Rodaidh McDonald. McDonald and Krell teamed up again for 2014’s ambitious What Is This Heart?
How To Dress Well's work has been described as "Lo-Fi R&B," but that only tells part of the story. It's hazy, swirling music that paints a striking picture of the past. The vocals are often buried under layers of reverb and muffled, but the sounds alone are enough to suggest an era long since past.
