“I’m afraid of the outdoors. No one believes me, because I go outside sometimes. Sometimes.”

NYC’s darkwave/synth-pop artist Ren Flowers combines the frantic energy of post-punk new wave with melancholy vocals and lyricism, begging listeners to “empathize with a dead man.”

Self-described as “mad depressed,” his latest release, “Agorafauxbia,” captures the frantic energy of a panic attack, matched against the weight of depression. As the song spirals in wide circles, Flowers sings, “When I talk to you / I feel like I’m losing brain cells.”

Distinctly lo-fi, “Agorafauxbia” is maddeningly contradictory, from start to finish, and we <3 it.

Stream “Agorafauxbia” here: