Everyone who talks about Arthur Ashin's music talks about it in R&B terms, but it's increasingly apparent that Ashin is not an R&B singer, that that whole context just doesn't make any sense for him. You can see it for yourself in Ashin's video for "Panic Room," the second single from his new Age Of Transparency video. This is a music video with no actual music. Instead, it's just Ashin walking into a blank audition room, attempting to impress a handful of insider types (one of whom is Pitchfork writer Ian Cohen, someone who plenty of indie music types would really like to impress). Ashin walks into the room and sings his song a cappella, and it's not a smooth performance. He's not in control of his instrument in the way just about every R&B singer ever has been. Instead, he's all over the place, rasping and squeaking and moaning. He flinches and squeezes his eyes shut tight and holds one hand up to his forehead like he's fighting off a headache. He falls to his knees as his voice shies further and further away from anything resembling conventional melody. It's like the song is singing him, rather than vice versa. And his words are as clammy and intense as his performance: "I found a place that I can lock you up tight and still make you think that you're free." And yet, watching it, I empathize more with the performer than with the judges who watch dispassionately and eventually cut him off. (This, even though my job, like Cohen's, actually involves judging music like this.) The Ashin of that video is a bit of a mess, but he's putting it all out there. The Ashin of Age Of Transparency isn't much different.