Sounds Beyond.

Washed Out | ‘Within and Without’

The 2009 emergence of Washed Out, the solo project of one Ernest Greene, may very well be one of the most exciting things to happen to the world of chillwave, so it’s no surprise that there’s been a pretty steady low rumble of anticipatory hype about his first full-length album, Within and Without, due out July 11/12 on Sub Pop/ Weird World. Word of mouth about up-and-coming efforts often comes at the expense of the music itself, but in this case, there is little here for words to express beyond genuine excitement at some downright beautiful work. Mr. Greene has managed to craft an album which, in every listening, sounds startlingly punctual in that it actually manages to punctuate memory. You will remember where you heard this first: the first time you hear the warm, layered synthscapes; the soft, harmonic vocals; and the incredibly crisp (almost dawn air crisp) production value. If this is what longing glances at the good parts of the 80’s are bringing to us, we may very well have to reconsider what the court of public opinion has said of the decade that planted the seed of this smoothed-out goodness. Take a listen to a couple of tracks from Within and Without below; first the album opener, “Eyes Be Closed” (which is also available as a single, along with two remixes), and then the utterly perfect “Far Away”. Get your hands on this one as soon as you can.

Washed Out - Eyes Be Closed by WeirdWorldRecordCo