Autre Ne Veut – “Play by Play”

Autre Ne Veut - Anxiety

“Play By Play” is a slice of ’80s R&B magic from Autre Ne Veut, the project of Arthur Ashin. We wrote about his excellent Body EP in 2011, noting the release’s commendable range — from the ambitiously sprawling Knife-like synth-pop of “Just Return” to the dancefloor-ready “Sweetheart”. Ashin’s voice possessed a flamboyant swagger in the vein of Scissor Sisters and Hot Chip, backed by a dizzying display of ’80s-inspired synths and moog bass. It was an exhilarating and instantly infectious release.  When Ashin announced in November that he planed to release his sophomore follow-up, Anxiety, in February, I was hoping he would revive some of the approaches on Body EP, whose four tracks were brief yet satisfying. The album’s opener, “Play by Play“, was unveiled today and chirpily plays along with what Ashin did best on the EP: produce highly emotive soul-pop with a dazzling synth-led R&B backbone. Glittering synths glide like a feather on ice as Ashin projects his sensual and high-pitched croon, borrowing from Justin Timberlake and The-Dream as much as Hot Chip and Erasure. Anxiety will be a fun ride, that’s for sure.

Anxiety track list:

01 Play by Play
02 Counting
03 Promises
04 Ego Free Sex Free
05 A Lie 06 Warning
07 Gonna Die
08 Don’t Ever Look Back
09 I Wanna Dance With Somebody
10 World War

Official Site / MySpace / BUY

Mike Mineo

I'm the founder/editor of Obscure Sound, which was formed in 2006. Previously, I wrote for PopMatters and Stylus Magazine.

Send your music to [email protected].

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