Following the release of How to Dress Wells Anteroom, Tom Krells ongoing musical and personal journey of self-discovery came to a peak. To release the cynicism he felt towards music after playing 150 shows in support of his 2018 album, he embarked on a regimen of intense meditation and psychedelic medicine. The effects of both can be heard on I Am Toward You, most literally on the reverberating mantras of "The Only True Joy on Earth," but also in the newfound openness of Krells sound and lyrics. On "New Confusion," he ponders the intersection of heartache and memory over glassy washes and plucked tones that suggest a more empathetic incarnation of Oneohtrix Point Never; later, "On It and Around It"s grade-school recollections blossom into a cosmic understanding of the balance between life and death. While the albums sound is considerably cleaner than Anterooms, expressive sounds and sonic illusions play their part on I Am Toward You -- after all, the albums title comes from a misheard Miley Cyrus lyric. Krells way with emotive noise might be most gripping on "Crypt Sustain," where molten guitars and furious double drums give heroic weight to his epiphany about the "crypt we carry with us," though the Baths-like "Contingency/Necessity (Modality of Fate)" and the feather-light tones and heavy beats of "Gas Station Against Blackened Hillside" come close. As I Am Toward You ranges from "No Light"s pleasingly fuzzed-out dream pop to "A Faint Glow Through a Window of Thin Bone"s piano-driven introspection, Krell lets his feelings and sounds take him where they will. I Am Toward Yous self-discovery reveals many possibilities for How to Dress Well, and even if theyre not as cohesive as some of Krells previous music, theyre promising. ~ Heather Phares

Rovi