When artists or musicians are inspired by dreams, they tend to portray their music as an accurate portrait of their lives. Some artists successfully induce that feeling, but some don't always succeed. Instead, How to Dress Well (the alias for solo artist Tom Krell) creates an image so vivid you want the entire album to be your ambience. Those familiar with Krell?s work should know how he operates; he uses quiet beats and hid his soulful voice under distortion. In his sophomore record, those beats are amped, but keep with quiet consistency of his first album. Even better, the vocals have been cleared up; replacing the distorted noise and making Krell?s voice more audible. Lyrics don't exactly convey the setting but weave with the beats and the slowly paced rhythm as Tom Krell transitions his sweet tenor voice as if he was the offspring of Robin Thicke. Songs like "Cold Nites" remind you of the dream sequences from the film Inception, and have a vibe that resembles the compositions of Hans Zimmer on some of the tracks. If you love the band Wild Nothing or solo act Bon Iver, this album boasts an atmospheric and moody evasion of reality, but never hesitates to back down until the very last track
Though it is noticeably lacking in sonic variation, Total Loss has a truly heavenly sound to it, and rises to soaring heights as it progresses, dreamily levitating listeners to indie pop cloud nine.
