Genre : R&B/Dream R&B/Ambient/Lo-Fi/Experimental
Year : 2010
Label : Lefse
Nostalgia and yearning are two powerful and swaying emotions that are capable of directing the mind towards aural and visual territories that one is craving for and loops the mind in a near endless trance of thought where memories rush instantly, stimulate the neurons and put a smile on your face or make you feel empty due to the pinching absence; these memories and longings that are close to your heart could possibly be an unfulfilled wish for utopia or a person you want to be closer to, a reminiscence of the good old days when you heard your favourite music playing on your favourite radio station while travelling in the backseat of your car, the joyful times spent with your family or friends, times spent on the beach, times spent getting high, etc. All of these little events that sum up your life, emotionally charge you and make you what you are. This is where our lo-fi bedroom musicians come in; to fill this void/gaping hole. Though incapacitated by technological limitations, the lo-fi aesthetic does a very good job of packaging these feelings in the music. A lo-fi track serves like a old Polaroid photograph (no wonder that bands these days use them as album covers); it brings these memories to the fore of your temple in the form of the antiquity it assigns to the record; as if one were listening to music from an old radio or listening to old music on vinyl – the tape saturation, the crackling sound, the worn out sound, the live and unfiltered setting of the recording space, the attenuated field recordings – exactly like the broken and faded memories that suddenly thrill you when figments of them cross your mind. When the bedroom artists fill the emptiness with reverb or their airy falsettos, they add another dimension to the bleached out sound – adding a certain ghostliness; the sound being reminisced is not present but, it’s dreamier and haunting version is present. This modicum of eccentricity in different lo-fi forms – chillwave, glo-fi, dream-pop, haunted house, and surf-rock is because of the aforementioned reasons (and if executed proficiently) proves to be a winning combination and hence is getting a thumbs-up from all quarters (think of the eccentric material being released by the ‘Olde English Spelling Bee’ label).
Submerged in such a medium with similar intentions is the philosophy student Tom Krell, an R&B artist whose circa 90s ethereal, soulful and fragile R&B vocal relics are an indemnification to the fissures of the cheap recording techniques he currently prefers (he someday hopes to collaborate on hi-fi tracks with Kanye West). This full length is a story of finding joy in love with the wrong and hurtful person, being betrayed and then coming out of it all; the varying moods from joy to depression and then happiness back again vividly capture the storyline. Describing the inspiration behind one of his well known and gorgeous tracks ‘Ready For The World’ which also appears on this album, in an interview, he said, he wanted to capture something similar to dribbling the cries of a neighbour through the floor after a break-up, but in an R&B format. When you listen to this second track, it does assign this feeling to it in the whitewashed vocals and the unintelligible lyrics; the intermittently echoing vocals soaring and blossoming, in harmony with the periodic contribution of the female humanoid vocals’ snipped lovable syllables and the floating guitar reverb and distortion, painting a hopeful picture (heart break having not touched him yet); the ear-drilling sound/screams being a party to the new found delight. He extends such methods to other tracks to mesmerize and beguile by enveloping you in this personally scathing journey.
Stylistically and conceptually the above track and the other tracks bear a close resemblance to what dubstep artist Burial produces. The similarity lies in the fact that both dwell on seclusion while recording their tracks(outside the recording realm as well), they are reminiscing the heydays of their respective lives and the preferential and associated genres (without actually sounding like them), they use mundane sounds skilfully to construct their tracks by sprinkling them over ambient anatomy and both intend to present a situation where one is surrounded by darkness and is guided by flickering lights; both these artists are actually revering this flickering light. Barring a few tracks with sampled and backing vocals, the only elements that describe the soundscape are the echoing vocals, the tape crackles, the pensive but moony pads, the scarred and stripped down instrumentation, bits and pieces of piercing noise, the relaxed percussion either via handclaps, banging tables or by using a drum machine and guitar reverb; the sound is bare and sometimes bears the hallmark of dementia.
One listen to a track like ‘Suicide Dream 2’ and one can assure oneself that it could have been as much a part of Burial’s Untrue as this album. ‘Suicide Dream 2’, in opposition to the joyous intro tracks, sounds like he’s at the end of the world, on top of a building in the middle of the night, ready to let go and die, but, before dying singing his last song to his lover who left him in unbearable pain expecting to be salvaged from ruin, letting his words and the remnants of his feelings drift away in the endless ether. The operatic heights kissing falsetto, the elegiac but glimmering keyboard notes, background chatter fill the dark abyss of the track, asking to be rescued and to bring the brightness to the light thirsty eyes. But, he hasn’t given up just yet (he sees a flickering light); the next track ‘You Won’t Need Me Where I’m Goin’, sees himself giving another chance to live and to distance himself from the relationship, his words and the chugging guitar declaring the title and enthusing with a new found positivity.
What sets him apart from Burial however, obviously besides the genre, are his undecipherable and buried under the beatific haze and cavernous vocals (unlike him, he isn’t chopping his own vocals to create paranoia) and his eclecticism. His Justin Timberlake-esque exultations (like in the track ‘You Hold The Water’) and spread out cooing vocals impart the tracks a mood enhancing, emollient and enchanting feel; without doubt he is a very good singer. The most dazzlingly beautiful moments of the album, ‘Escape Before The Rain’ and ‘Decisions’ featuring the artist Yuksel Arslan are evidence to the man’s expertise and vocal prowess. The former with the delay affected layered celestial whispering vocals effused with a build up into the bare and initially undulating piano notes, overpowers emotionally, as its minimal settings touch your heart and send a chill through you. The latter, full of life and cheery diffuses the initial melancholia through the complex snowballing vocal patterns and the drum beats marching in tandem. The only thing that you wish after hearing the track is that it were a little longer. The next track ‘Suicide Dream 1’ however fulfils this wish and unlike the name, it proves to be a satisfyingly sober listening. Other tracks like ‘Date Of Birth’, the instrumental sampled ‘Lover’s Start’, the upbeat ‘Walking This Dumb Line (Live)’ and ‘Can’t See My Own Face’ bear his vocal signatures and serve their part in the story without sounding like fillers.
While the album can boast of moments like above, there are tracks like ‘My Body’, ‘Endless Rain’ and ‘Mr By & By’ on the album that are marred by underproduction, the cracks being visible clearly. ‘My Body’ has some imperfections in the form of the trudging beats; the emotions vaporise before the beats can make any impact; it sounds very half-hearted and unprocessed. The vocals in the ending can be a drag too, here. ‘Endless Rain’ and ‘Mr By & By’ are by far the worst tracks on the album. They sound like Krell is dubbing on beats that are emanating out a boombox playing near the mike. And to degrade the sound further, the vocals sound like they are entangled, not distinct and cherubic like those on the highlights (the bathroom singing could have been avoided); the reverb and feathery distortion absent too.
Minus these bearable hindrances, the album ‘Love Remains’ thus proves to be a dusty gem. Unlike the EPs he was releasing earlier, this album undeniably is a coherent listen that showcases How To Dress Well’s qualities of merging dream-pop’s hypnagogic and elevating tendencies into the R&B aesthetics. Barring a few exceptions, he stands miles ahead of his peers on major labels who can only dream of doing something as worthwhile as he does; cheap gadgetry and lo-fi antics never sounded so astounding and moving. HTDW does have plans of recording music on hi-fi; it is doubtful however that he will be successfully able to replicate these sonic textures and patterns like he does here.
Rating : 8.4/10
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