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Jun 23, 2014Though it never quite comes through crystal-clear, the intensity and sincerity of the underlying emotion manages to bleed through a confusing swirl of altered sounds.
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Jun 20, 2014It moves Krell closer to the mainstream without sacrificing the emotional complexity of his music, proving that Krell is a musical force not to be underestimated.
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Jun 23, 2014The title of this album is a challenge as well, as How to Dress Well’s modern masterpiece is conducted with the most eternal transparency--Krell asks “what is this heart” and lets you look right into his own.
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Jun 24, 2014With What Is This Heart? Tom Krell has managed to indulge his experimental tendencies while at the same time achieve his most accessible sound to date.
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Q MagazineJul 2, 2014It's an album constructed from the simplest of elements: muted keyboards chords, pained falsetto vocals and Krell's greatest weapon of all: near silence. [Aug 2014, p.108]
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Jun 26, 2014Despite the mainstream references, the album is a much more emotionally wrenching experience than anything on the actual pop charts.
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Jun 25, 2014Krell's still part of a pop vanguard, but his music is more than ever a welcoming gesture.
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Jun 24, 2014Krell’s most complete album to date: not because it exactly answers the question of where his position is in relation to pop--nor the question of the title, nor any questions at all--but because it perfectly captures that oscillation that has always been at the centre of his work.
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Jun 19, 2014Though his voice can sound a little insipid, songs such as A Power, Face Again and What You Wanted possess satisfying bass rumbles and earworm hooks.
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Jun 19, 2014Krell's tactile electronic textures remain, of course--as beguiling and poignant as ever--but a wider instrumental palette has been brought into the fold, resulting in his most ambitious and addictive album to date.
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Jun 19, 2014The music itself is bolder, yes, but still operating on the same cloudy register, stamping above experimentation into the domain of an artist who is more determined than ever.
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Jun 19, 2014A collision between complex, elegant songwriting and soppy bedroom angst, it's not the most coherent collection of songs, but that disorder works, ending up as a function of Krell's ultimately fascinating sense of experimentation.
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Aug 21, 2014It's a smörgåsbord of carefully culled influence, one that Krell indulges in with gusto.
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Jun 25, 2014Krell steps out of the shadows on his third album, but of course he hasn’t let go of the sadness that’s colored the project to date.
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Jul 7, 2014The songs allow drama instead of losing themselves in repetition and reverie. The music is closer to pop, but it’s still within Mr. Krell’s interior world.
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Jul 7, 2014All that said, there’s a lot to love still, and if you carefully trim around the dross, you’re left with a stunning product and some phantasmagorical slivers of sonic mastery.
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Jun 25, 2014As intellectual and introverted as Krell often is, he’s at his best when he and the music simply let go. What Is This Heart? delivers in the second half when nearly every song peaks with exuberant finales.
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Jun 24, 2014An immersive album that feels designed to be taken as a whole, What Is This Heart? reveals How to Dress Well coming into its own.
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Jun 23, 2014Krell’s fragile innocence and tenderness remains as touching as ever, though, with a string of grand, sweeping numbers occupying the album’s heart that underline his power to galvanise the deepest depths of the soul.
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Jun 19, 2014There’s no staggering departure from Total Loss, but the backdrop for his soulful R&B crooning is becoming worn-out, and you can feel Krell auditioning replacements.
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Jun 19, 2014Krell’s voice could never get tiresome, but the album seems unclear as to what it wants to be--too restless for heartbreak, too downbeat for the dancefloor, like a candle that’s trying to illuminate a club.
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Jun 30, 2014At its heart it is an album at odds with itself as much as it is with its audience, too weird to gain mainstream popularity, but too pop to be truly revered by existing fans.
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Jun 24, 2014The result is one of optimistic discontent. Krell’s heart may be perpetually drug through the dirt, but nothing is going to stop him from looking up.
User score distribution:
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Positive: 36 out of 41
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Mixed: 3 out of 41
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Negative: 2 out of 41
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Jul 18, 2014
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Jun 24, 2014
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Jul 7, 2014