Over the course of four albums, Chicago’s Tom Krell, aka How to Dress Well, has moved from hollowing out his tactile take on R&B to filling it to the brim. Care – which features production from Taylor Swift collaborator Jack Antonoff – is a much bolder pop experiment than his previous work, overflowing with bright melodies and, on seductive opener Can’t You Tell and single Lost Youth/Lost You, proper singalong choruses. While previously his songs could veer towards a parody of little-boy-lost R&B, here his delicate vocals are housed in much more robust settings, the excellent Salt Song, for example, morphing from a fluttering electronic canter into a big wall of detuned noise. It’s an album that revels in its creative freedom.
