The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
The Spill Magazine The Spill Magazine
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
16
new
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: H.C. McENTIRE – EVERY ACRE
SPILL NEW MUSIC: BODYWASH ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ‘I HELD THE SHAPE WHILE I COULD’ + SHARES NEW SINGLE
SPILL NEW MUSIC: THE BOO RADLEYS RELEASE NEW SINGLE AHEAD OF NEW ALBUM
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LIVE FROM PARADISE
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF MIND SESSIONS (1996-1997) THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIANNE FAITHFULL – KISSIN’ TIME (REISSUE)
SPILL NEWS: YOUNG THE GIANT ANNOUNCES NORTH AMERICAN TOUR WITH MILKY CHANCE STARTING MAY 30
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: TEARING UP – “SAID SOMETHING”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: EDNA FRAU – “ON THE LONG RUN”
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: GHOST LOVE – “MOURNERS DISCO”
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KEVIN MORBY – MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY
SPILL NEW MUSIC: SUBWAY TO SALLY SETS SAIL WITH SECOND SINGLE “LEINEN LOS” + UNVEILS ANIMATED OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: UNIVERSAL HONEY – “TIME BLINDNESS”
SPILL VIDEO PREMIERE: THE NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY – “IN YOUR EYES”
SPILL NEWS: ALEXISONFIRE ANNOUNCE TORONTO PERFORMANCE JUNE 16 AT BUDWEISER STAGE WITH SPECIAL GUESTS PUP AND METZ
SPILL NEWS: PUBLIC IMAGE LTD RELEASE VIDEO FOR NEW SONG “HAWAII” | GROUP WILL COMPETE TO REPRESENT IRELAND AT EUROVISION 2023
  • Reviews
    • Album Reviews
    • Features
    • Live Reviews
    • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • Headlines
    • News
    • Contests
    • Events
    • Entertainment Headlines
    • Concert Listings
    • Toronto Concert Venues
  • New Music
    • Premieres
    • Track Of The Day
  • Track Of The Month
  • Books + Movies
  • About
  • Spill Menu
    • Reviews
      • Album Reviews
      • Features
      • Live Reviews
      • Festivals
    • Portraits
    • Headlines
      • News
      • Contests
      • Events
      • Entertainment Headlines
      • Concert Listings
      • Toronto Concert Venues
    • New Music
      • Premieres
      • Track Of The Day
    • Track Of The Month
    • Books + Movies
    • About
Album Reviews
168
previous article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KILLING JOKE - PYLON
next article
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: WAVVES - V

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: AUTRE NE VEUT – AGE OF TRANSPARENCY

Autre Ne Veut
Age of Transparency
Downtown Records
RATING

Autre Ne Veut, a.k.a. Brooklyn singer-soulwriter Arthur Ashin, opens his third full-length record with the challenging, atonal “On and On (Reprise).” The jarring introduction to Age of Transparency features Ashin’s vocals over a free-form jazz composition. At the 1:15 mark, the track breaks down before skittering into a series of false starts and aborted vocal crescendos . . . a record skipping . . Ashin’s voice strains for something greater, cracks. The tinkling piano and flutes usher this directionless six-minute track forward until it is again interrupted by a vocal meltdown, ultimately devolving into Ashin repeating “…like a child… like a child…” until finally, mercifully ending. “Panic Room” marks a welcome return to expectation, to crooning over beats built for head-nodding. With this high-contrast collision of form and function, Ashin has performed a nifty bit of misdirection. What Ashin intended with “On and On (Reprise)” cannot be wholly understood. Suggesting the opener is a bit of an exorcism, a purge of Autre Ne Veut’s more experimental tendencies might be underestimating how we experience music, or more specifically how we experience a full album, especially a follow-up to a record as critically successful and adored as Anxiety. Audiences expect an artist to do the same, just different with each subsequent release, like the musician existed in a stasis in the months and years between formal releases. This expectation allows no room for growth and evolution. To the album’s detriment, “On and On (Reprise)” doesn’t fully exorcise Ashin’s most experimental tendencies. The song destroys listener expectation before redrafting and reshaping this expectation. Age of Transparency’s complex arrangements and shattered musicality still feel familiar even if they’re constantly pushing, shifting, broadening our definition of Autre Ne Veut. Nothing else on Age of Transparency ever approaches the album’s jarring opening volley. That said, nothing on the album ultimately, wholly satisfies either. Age of Transparency knowingly sacrifices the pop sensibility that made Anxiety an immediately listenable slice of “bedroom R&B” (as the micro-genre has been dubbed). The album’s first single “World War Pt. 2” doesn’t bother with something as prosaic as a hook. Only “Panic Room” (which is actually some of Ashin’s strongest songwriting to date) and the album’s title track approach that former accessibility, teasing us with the warm fuzzies of Anxiety’s brilliant duo of “Play by Play” and “Counting.” The rest of the record riffs on themes established in “On and On (Reprise)” – glitchy electronics, improvisational jazz and Ashin’s pained, heartbroken voice uniting the many disparate elements on Age of Transparency into something approaching coherence… without ever quite getting there. Ashin’s complex vocal histrionics often overreach and become, in fits and spurts, somewhat self-parodying. A drunken lounge singer, cigarette dangling from his lips, wooing a beautiful but disinterested audience member with the blues oozing from his haggard soul. Exhaustive and complex, the songs on Age of Transparency disappear beneath the weight of Ashin’s vocals – the lyrics at the same time too manic and too repetitive. In the end, his emotional baggage becomes too much to bear; we’re left without the payoff, without the reward or the visceral pleasure for our extra effort.

James David Patrick

autreneveut.com/

close

STAY UP-TO-DATE
WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER!

* Mandatory Field

Check your inbox or spam folder now (just in case!) to confirm your subscription.

Item Reviewed

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: AUTRE NE VEUT – AGE OF TRANSPARENCY

Author

James David Patrick

Here's what we think...
Spill Rating
Fan Rating
Rate Here
New Criteria
10
10
7.0
Total Spill Rating
10
Total Fan Rating
You have rated this
Album Reviews
age of transparencyalbum reviewsautre ne veut
age of transparency, album reviews, autre ne veut
About the Author
James David Patrick
James David Patrick has a B.A. in film studies from Emory University, an M.F.A in Creative Writing from the University of Southern Maine, and an honorary Ph.D. in bullshitting about everything else from the College of Two Pints. His fiction and non-fiction has appeared in PANK, Monkeybicycle, Squalorly, Specter Lit, and Bartleby Snopes among other wordy magazines. While he does not like to brag (much), he has interviewed Tom Hanks and is pretty sure you haven't. He bl-gs about music, movies, and nostalgia at thirtyhertzrumble.com and runs the James Bond Social Media Project at thejamesbondsocialmediaproject.com. James lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
RELATED ARTICLES
album reviews
 
8.0
H.C. McEntire

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: H.C. McENTIRE – EVERY ACRE

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on January 27, 2023
H.C. McEntire Every Acre Merge Records Durham, North Carolina might not exactly be a renowned music center, but that there is quite a good chance that singer-songwriter H.C. McEntire and her latest release, Every Acre, might give that city a [...]
 
8.0
Jerry Leger

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LIVE FROM PARADISE

by Bryan Williston on January 27, 2023
Jerry Leger Live From Paradise Latent Recordings Toronto singer-songwriter Jerry Leger is one of those artists who does not sit still for too long. With his solid motivation and work ethic, it’s little wonder that he is releasing some choice [...]
 
9.0
Bob Dylan

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF MIND SESSIONS (1996-1997) THE BOOTLEG SERIES VOL. 17

by Aaron Badgley on January 27, 2023
Bob Dylan Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996-1997) The Bootleg Series Vol. 17 Legacy/Colombia/Sony Bob Dylan continues his bootleg series with number 17. For this box set, Fragments – Time Out Of Mind Sessions (1996 – [...]
 
8.0
Marianne Faithfull

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIANNE FAITHFULL – KISSIN’ TIME (REISSUE)

by Aaron Badgley on January 27, 2023
Marianne Faithfull Kissin’ Time (Reissue) BMG By 2002 Marianne Faithful was eager to return to a more contemporary sound following albums in which she focused on Kurt Weill. These include Weill recording and performing his opera The Seven [...]
 
8.0
Kevin Morby

SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KEVIN MORBY – MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY

by Ljubinko Zivkovic on January 25, 2023
Kevin Morby Music From Montana Story Dead Oceans If there’s an artist who can come up with a soundtrack for a neo-Western film today, Kevin Morby might not be the usual choice, but just might be a great one. Scott McGehee and David Siegel [...]

Latest Album Reviews
View All
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: H.C. McENTIRE – EVERY ACRE
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JERRY LEGER – LIVE FROM PARADISE
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BOB DYLAN – FRAGMENTS – TIME OUT OF...
9.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: MARIANNE FAITHFULL – KISSIN’ TIME (...
8.0
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KEVIN MORBY – MUSIC FROM MONTANA STORY
8.0

STAY UP-TO-DATE
WITH OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER!

* Mandatory Field

Check your inbox or spam folder now (just in case!) to confirm your subscription.

Tweets by @spillmagazine

SPILL MAGAZINE MENU
  • Home | The Spill Magazine
  • Premieres
  • Track Of The Month
  • Album Reviews
  • Books + Movies
  • Features
  • Live Reviews
  • Festivals
  • Portraits
  • News
  • Events
  • Entertainment Headlines
  • Concert Listings
  • Toronto Concert Venues
  • About Us
  • Contests
  • New Music
  • Contributors
  • TOTD
  • Privacy Policy
  • The Scene Unseen
  • Newsletter

Copyright © 2023 | The Spill Magazine
All Rights Reserved.

TRENDING RIGHT NOW
   
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: QUADECA – I DIDN’T MEAN TO HAUNT YOU
2314
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: THE HUMAN LEAGUE – THE VIRGIN YEARS
1827
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: SHRIEKBACK – BOWLAHOOLA
746
 
SPILL LIVE REVIEW: SUEDE AND MANIC STREET PREACHERS @ THE COMMODORE BALLROOM, VANCOUVER
518
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: CHEAP TRICK – LIVE AT THE WHISKY 1977
490
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: ELVIS PRESLEY – ELVIS ON TOUR
459
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DAVID CROSBY & THE LIGHTHOUSE BAND – LIVE AT THE CAPITAL THEATRE
336
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: NAZZ – LOST MASTERS & DEMOS
326
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: LITTLE RIVER BAND – ULTIMATE HITS/MASTERPIECES
314
 
SPILL MUSIC PREMIERE: GRAMERCY ARMS – “YESTERDAY’S GIRL” FT. LLOYD COLE
312
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JOAN ARMATRADING – LIVE AT ASYLUM CHAPEL
303
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: JEAN-MICHEL JARRE – THE CONCERTS IN CHINA (40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION)
255
 
SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: RINGO STARR AND HIS ALL-STARR BAND – LIVE AT THE GREEK THEATRE 2019
255
ENTERTAINMENT HEADLINES