It seems like only yesterday, but it’s already been a solid sixteen months since Brooklyn-based genius Tom Krell released his debut album Love Remains under his moniker How To Dress Well on September 21, 2010, and Tom has become somewhat of a legend in the world of experimental pop ever since. His incomparable talent has garnered him critical worship from nearly every single major music trade worth knowing about, including Pitchfork which gave the album a gold medal 8.7 rating and ranked it among their elite “Best New Music” selections. Stereogum ranked him as one of their “40 Best Bands Of 2010”, and SPIN gave the album an 8/10 ranking, calling it “as meditative as it is evocative.” To call the album “evocative” would be the understatement of the century as far as I’m concerned: “Suicide Dream 2”, “Can’t See My Own Face”, and the pounding “Walking This Dumb (Live)” are among my favorite tracks of the past two years, but nothing compares to the astonishing beauty of “Escape Before The Rain”.
There have been various short phases of my life over these past sixteen months where “Escape Before The Rain” has become a personal anthem of David Lynchian proportions, and it seems to be happening once again. During this past Christmas holiday I was visiting my family and on my drive back to Montreal I found myself listening to this track on constant repetition as I weaved through the country roads of the Ottawa Valley in what can only be described as a purely hypnotic state. For what seemed like an eternity, the infinite farm fields of white snow, rolling hills of leafless trees, and tilted barns of grey twisted wood merged in perfect unison with this song. The beauty of music video art shone right through the sound as well, with the ghostly images of the following visual narrative below drifting in and out of my mind like ghosts in the wind. And no, I wasn’t tripping out on wizard cabbage — this song just happens to reveal itself to me every now and again at the most unexpected moments. The captivation, resonant atmosphere, and hypnotic mood contained in what you are about to see and hear is unlike anything I have ever had the pleasure of knowing in my entire life.
You can purchase your own copy of the album on iTunes, and be sure to follow the band on their blog, Facebook, Twitter, and LastFM. For all FEELguide posts related to How To Dress Well CLICK HERE. In addition to making music, Tom Krell is a graduate student in Philosophy and has studied in the United States and Europe (most specifically in Cologne and Berlin, Germany).
