Washed Out - Within and Without [Sub Pop/Weird World]

7.7

Ernest Green, or more known as Washed Out, does chillwave. Strictly chillwave. After getting some solid material out there, Green signed with Sub Pop to release his debut Within and Without. Heavy synthesizers, dancey beats, and Green’s soft and tender voice make up the sound surrounding Washed Out’s chillwave appearance, but unlike the earlier releases of the year from Toro Y Moi, Washed Out is chillwave. Moment fade in and out for Green’s debut, but keep a solid rendition of great sounding pop music that is easy, breezy music for a summer evening.

Hitting off with the one and only superb track off Within and Without, “Eyes Be Closed”, Green’s knack for creating this near-epic atmosphere that’s like an airplane taking off for its maiden voyage. This eerily familiar space of sound Green creates does transcribe into later tracks, but it’s most prominent on “Eyes Be Closed”. The softly vintage sound that inscribes the album intertwines with its charm of being innocent yet ready; “Soft” takes us through a mixture of heavy bass and layers upon layers of synthesizers soaring right through Green’s almost ghostly vocals.

What’s lacking to make Within and Without totally engrossing to the ear is the overflow of cheesiness in some of the tracks; they have some of that soft, floating sound but reveal more of the cheesy dance music. “Before” has good potential, but is bogged down through the Blade Runner-esque spurts of synths flowing throughout the song. “You and I” just sounded too much like a super mellow Daft Punk b-side that turns itself over to over indulgent synths yet again. These tracks would indeed sounds fine as casual background, but in tight, introspective listens are not inviting on Within and Without, but really what chillwave is?

Chillwave is simple music with dynamics of create atmosphere that appeal to memories and senses. Finale track “A Dedication” is another quiet highlight that uses it’s expanses of synths beautifully along with Green’s vocals that really just hits a sweet spot in your brain. Hitting that sweet spot is what chillwave is all about anyway, to evoke a past memory or unique emotion for a small moment, like a quick high. Green’s vocals do that marvelously when masking emotions in a shell that is so complex to interpret.

Even if Within and Without isn’t that record for chillwave as I’ve mentioned in earlier reviews, it’s still a great listen for anybody who wants a taste of some “scene” music. With minimal highlights and minimal dragging moments, Within and Without is truly solid in a sense that its architecture is nicely built with small spots of error, but interesting spots of beauty. Exciting things will happen with Ernest Green in his musical future.