You could fairly accuse Tom Krell of faking the funk. “Repeat Pleasure,” from the Chicago-based globetrotting minstrel’s upcoming album “What Is This Heart?” (due out June 24 via Weird World), stretches out the ghostly R&B glide of Krell’s prior How to Dress Well work, but whatever its fidgety electric guitar lines might suggest, there’s little to dance about here. “Even broken, my heart will go on,” released in a heart-stabbing upper register, is the standout moment, but the most revealing line might be when Krell insists, “Yeah, once you got it, you want something else.” The reason pleasure has to repeat here is because it never lasts.
The song’s video, with past How to Dress Well collaborator Luke Gilford as creative director and Johannes Greve Muskat directing, is an elusive and emotionally intense visualization of these themes. Krell makes a brief appearance, as a convenience-store clerk, but the Dazed-premiered video — the first in a trilogy — mostly follows a young couple and a sickly older man. The twists and turns are gut-punching enough, particularly set to How to Dress Well’s ephemeral raptures, but there’s definitely room for further development in future videos. For instance, pay close attention: What does Krell hand the young man over the check-out counter? And repeat.
