Stream How To Dress Well Land Of The Overflowing Urn EP
Back in 2016, the Chicago-based R&B experimentalist Tom Krell, who records as How To Dress Well, released Care, a sharp and empathetic album that drew inspiration from dancehall and straight-up pop while still remaining rooted in Krell’s sad, searching soul music. Since then, Krell has remained pretty quiet, other than a few one-off songs — a Sheryl Crow cover here, a Jacques Greene collab there. But now he’s got a new EP out in the world.
Land Of The Overflowing Urn, the new How To Dress Well EP, is just two songs long, but one of those two songs is an expansive seven-minute suite called “Vacant Boat (shred) | Non-Killing 1 | The Anteroom | False Skull 1.” In some ways, the music contained therein feels like a throwback to the shadowy, muffled early days of Krell’s career. It’s whispery, decentered music, not the relatively controlled and focused stuff that Krell has been doing in recent years. But it also pulls in new sounds, like the itchy leftfield house music that rumbles through the “False Skull 1″ part of that suite.
There is reportedly more new How To Dress Well music on the way, so maybe this is just the start of an ongoing project. Whatever the case, you can hear it below.
The Land Of The Overflowing Urn EP is out now on Domino.