Here’s another new one from Tom Krell, AKA How To Dress Well’s forthcoming new album, Total Loss. Following the sweet sentiment and wistful intimacy of ‘Ocean Floor For Everything’ – the final song on Total Loss and the first song we shared from the record a month or so ago – the beautifully austere ‘Cold Nites’, a song from the A-side of Total Loss, represents a more muscular, physical side of Tom’s work: an enormous shuffling beat bangs under his familiarly gorgeous chorus-of-one vocals, to exhilarating effect.
Deeper and more disconsolate than R&B is typically allowed to be, Krell’s song nevertheless stays true to pop
form: this one could score a sleepless night in a frigid bedroom as easily as a 100 MPH dicey drive at the end of one’s rope, with the song’s climax putting the pedal through the floor. ‘Cold Nites’ – recorded with Rodaidh McDonald (The
XX, King Krule) last summer – is another sign of the leap in fidelity and ambition / scope his songs have taken since 2010’s incredible Love Remains debut and a glimpse into the extremely special and unique internal universe of Total Loss.
“‘Cold Nites’ is a song about the will to preserve love”, says Krell, “already a miraculous thing in the most hospitable situations – across long distances, challenging times, life’s changes – this will to love can give us the most beautiful stability and sense of accomplishment, but can also lead us into totally spiritually rending compromises, split between worlds.”
Total Loss is out on September 17th. Pre-order it here.
Tom plays the songs of the new album for the first time ever in the UK on August 8th at Birthdays. Last tickets available here.