How to Dress Well
“What Is This Heart?” (Domino/Weird World)

How to Dress Well leader Tom Krell hails from Chicago, but his touring band features a couple of Vancouver’s finest players: multi-instrumentalist and comedian Aaron Read and Kellarissa’s Larissa Loyva. The musicians will have their work cut out for them when playing shows in support of “What Is This Heart?”, since the album’s arrangements are breathtaking in their ornate majesty.

Scottish producer Rodaidh McDonald helps Krell capture a diverse sound that ranges from hushed acoustic balladry to experimental R & B grooves to impossibly lush baroque grandeur. The opener, “2 Years On (Shame Dream)”, starts off humbly, as Krell’s quivering vocals flutter atop a sparse web of acoustic plucking. It’s a sad, intimate family tableau that sets a melancholic tone for “What Is This Heart?”, although the production throughout these 12 songs is so beautiful that the mood is comforting rather than harrowing. There’s an undercurrent of disco buoyancy to the electroacoustic grooves of “Repeat Pleasure”, and “Precious Love” is sweetened by pillowy, soft-focus keyboard tones. The songs are tuneful, but it’s the lavish instrumentation that truly makes them memorable.

Most gorgeous of all, “Pour Cyril” swells from an a cappella intro to massive-sounding string orchestrations that give way to brassy breaks and are eventually overlaid with spine-tingling distorted tones. It’s difficult to imagine how Krell and company will possibly be able to re-create it live, but fans will soon find out when How to Dress Well comes to town later this month. Considering the band’s local connections, it ought to be a warm homecoming.