Modelling the sound of sorrow

How To Dress Well’s new album Total Loss is infused with singer and songwriter Tom Krell’s grief for a friend who died, says Ed Power

TOM KRELL has just recorded a different break-up album. Two years ago, the Colorado native (stage name How To Dress Well), lost a close friend. The young man died in his sleep. Krell has tried to make sense of it. You can hear him work through the grief on How To Dress Well’s stunning album Total Loss.

“In many ways, Total Loss is a record about how to live,” he says. “Following that experience [his friend’s death], my thoughts became incredibly focused. I wanted to be sweeter and kinder and to show more love to friends and family. Before that, I was pretty blindly on autopilot. I received a massive wake-up call.”