How to Dress Well is the stage name of Tom Krell, an American multimedia artist, singer-songwriter, and producer from Boulder, Colorado. His musical work falls under ambient music, experimental electronic, and alternative R&B. He began releasing music independently through his own blog around 2009 and via labels like Tri Angle, Lefse Records, Weird World, and eventually Domino later on in his career. Life and career Early days Krell was born in Boulder, Colorado. Beginning in 2009, he began to turn out free EPs on his blog, under the name How to Dress Well. He published six EPs in six months. He didn't release his name or his photo, but critics quickly picked up on Krell's music and brought him out of the shadows. Love Remains (2010) How to Dress Well's debut album, Love Remains, was released in 2010 on Lefse in the United States and on Tri Angle in Europe and Asia. The album assembled the best of Krell's early EPs and garnered critical acclaim. It received a score of 8.7 and the "Best New Music" designation from music review site Pitchfork Media. Stereogum recognized How to Dress Well as one of its "40 Best Bands of 2010". Spin gave the album 8 out of 10 stars, calling it "as meditative as it is evocative... conjuring fractured memories of Shai or TLC". Just Once EP (2011) In 2011, How to Dress Well released the Just Once EP—a four-song suite of "Suicide Dream" songs set against a string quartet. The EP collects two previously released tracks bearing the name "Suicide Dream", adds a third with that title, and throws in a new version of "Decisions". The set was inspired by and is dedicated to a friend of Krell's, who died. Limited to 1,000 copies, the 10" vinyl release donated $1 of every record sold to a nonprofit working to raise awareness about mental illness. Total Loss (2012) On the heels of the success of Love Remains, Krell signed a deal with Weird World Records, an imprint of Domino Records. Total Loss was released on September 18, 2012 in North America by Acephale Records and worldwide through Weird World Records. Krell wrote the album over the course of fifteen months or so in Brooklyn, Chicago, Nashville, and London. The album received a "Best New Music" nod from Pitchfork Media, where Ian Cohen wrote that it is "a work of poignant and devastating