Nara’s Ex Confusion opts for sparseness. This is partially due to recording surroundings — he makes bedroom music, the sort where the sound of the (literal) outside world sneaks into the music and disrupts the dreamlike atmosphere he conjures up. Yet it’s also simply what he wants to do, driven home via a release on Orchid Tapes and a haunting little album last year. Tears is the latest installment in the Ex Confusion story, and is one of the most vulnerable releases from an already stripped-down artist. As the title hints at, this is an especially pained collection — the title track hides strings under a synthesizer sheet, giving the song a ghostly quality, while even something with a persistent beat such as “Relaxology” sounds disoriented, working in barely audible snippets of dialogue to ground the song in reality. There’s a lot of pain lurking in these skeletal numbers. Get it here, or listen below.