ALBUM REVIEW: WASHED OUT - WITHIN AND WITHOUT

The biggest problem with the chillwave movement - right next to all the bedroom references - is that you can’t utter the words “I listen to chillwave” without sounding like a complete twat. I wish to not be misinterpreted. It’s not the music in itself. Well, not always. It’s the name which is a bigger joke than Klaxons’ nu-rave or NME’s Thames-scene. The (real) downside is that bands labeled as this ridiculous thing might (and will) get written off as hipster trash or pretentious pricks without even being given a change. Surely enough, Toro y Moi deserves it 99% of the time, but the rest are worth at least a play.

What those who still cling on to the genre might hope is that, with his debut Within and Without, Georgia-native Ernest Greene aka Washed Out might make it all ok. Which he does, but not really. He does, because most of the songs could work wonderfully on their own, with their Panda Bear meets Radio Dept aura, their drone vocals. The wooziness of Echoes, the slight crescendo of Amor Fati, the underlying urgency of Eyes Be Closed and the glitzy whiffs of Before all make beautiful stand-outs, songs that should not require only high temperatures to make their ways into people’s playlists.

Where Greene fails is in putting these songs together as an album. Yes, one could say they float into one another and one could speak of bedroom laziness. But what happens in reality is that the album becomes a melting pot of sorts, melodies sounding far too similar and making the ear of the listener feel uncomfortable in the sameness of the instrumentals. Or, in plain language, unappealing.

In fact, Within and Without feels like a Greene is trying to recapture something he himself is not sure of. And by the end of the album, it sure feels like he should even think about that something, but perhaps try and craft something new.

 ~ Ana Dinescu