How to Dress Well - Care

How to Dress Well
Care
2016
Spotify

Chicago native Tom Krell otherwise known as How to Dress Well has returned with his fourth LP Care. Care follows in the footsteps of his previous album What is This Heart? as he makes the shift from the glichty techno inspired music from his early career to this new heavily pop centric record. Full voice is almost completely gone on Care and Krell almost exclusively sings in falsetto. Whatever sort of interesting unique things that How to Dress Well was doing in the past seemed to have slipped away for a much more generic sound, tailor made for the masses. The only problem is that Care just is not all that good. If we were talking about some incredible sounding pop music that inspired and delighted that would be a different story. What we get on a song like "Salt Song" is a track so full of itself (and strings) that it is tough to sit through the six and a half minute run time. The only somewhat interesting moment comes at the end of the track where a heavily affected electric guitar comes in and the song gets really really big. However, by that point who really gives a shit after having to slog through the rest of the track. The whole album feels that way, brief inspiring moments that are surrounded by tons of fluff. The tropical house inspired "What's Up" is perhaps one of the best examples of this because at times you find yourself enjoying it because it's there, but then realizing, why?

"The Ruins" is one of the songs that Krell sings with so much intensity, but it all feels misplaced. he never sets the tone for these heavy emotions they just are sort of there. This song in particular is almost an epic in how many changes it goes through taking the listener on what I am assuming How to Dress Well thinks is quite the journey. Just when you think things can't get worse on comes "Burning Up" which I really cannot even describe how bad this track is. What's worse is that it is produced within an inch of it's life making the sound very rich, but just not good. Any sense of the track being melodic is thrown away to make way for Krell's doubled vocals over and over again. It is almost a cringe level track that I simply cannot imagine him singing live with any real conviction. The worst part is you know how great How to Dress Well can be. They have paired up with the likes of Classixx and others to lend his voice to some of their better tracks, but here he is so out of touch it's shocking. New directions don't always mean success, and in the case of Care it really is a slide back for How to Dress Well. Maybe we can just pretend this record never happened?

2.9 out of 10