Following the release of
How to Dress Well
's
Anteroom
,
Tom Krell
's 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
Krell
's 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 album's sound is considerably cleaner than
's, expressive sounds and sonic illusions play their part on
-- after all, the album's title comes from a misheard
Miley Cyrus
lyric.
's 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
ranges from "No Light"'s pleasingly fuzzed-out dream pop to "A Faint Glow Through a Window of Thin Bone"'s piano-driven introspection,
lets his feelings and sounds take him where they will.
's self-discovery reveals many possibilities for
, and even if they're not as cohesive as some of
's previous music, they're promising. ~ Heather Phares