So I'm still not sure I know what "chillwave" means, but apparently it's the next new genre that is going to take us indie kids by storm. So if I had a gun to my head and had to give a straight answer, I guess my answer would be Washed Out. Not since James Blake's debut earlier this year have I heard such a chilled out album that still made me want to dance or hang with any sort of friends I had. Granted this isn't what you would car party music in the 21st century, but I'm sure you and your buddies would have as good of a time listening and "chilling" out to this as you would with a turd from Skrillex. Judging by this album cover too, it's probably a pretty good activity to do while listening to this.
Washed Out is the moniker for Ernest Greene who has been a part of the mp3blog movement for a couple of years. Most of his songs released as singles and EP's are recorded from a bedroom studio. None of that could be found on this debut as it sounds as carefully crafted as many other releases this year. Greene likes to point out the fact that he takes a hip-hop approach to writing songs and it shows. The lyricism is as poignant and these are beats he's crafting after all, so it's not like it's a rock band. Greene also has a brilliant display of a harmonizing voice similar to that of Panda Bear and the voice is best showcased on tracks like "Eyes Be Closed" and "Echoes" which finely open the album with prime examples of what to expect. It may seem minimal, but the music is effective in what it's trying to prove.
The album also has a very fluid flow, there aren't any jams to be heard upon and a lot of the feel is retro, but not once in the album will you feel like it messes with any mood it's conveying. There are some clunkers in the album "You and I" and the title track both seem like they were at least a minute too long, but everything else is so finely tuned that even for eight minutes, it doesn't seem like much of a waste if any. The album has a run time of just about 40 minutes, but it's a quick and entrancing forty minutes at that. The icing on the cake is the heartbreaking closer "A Dedication" which is somber in it's appeal but appropriate in its place.
Simply put, you won't find a finer chillwave album this year, much less an album as beautiful, dancey, somber, and made for good times like this one. It's not rare for an artist to knock it out with his debut LP, in fact, it makes me curious to see how he can build off of it considering this album has been a couple of years in the making. But if you kept up with the string of songs released beforehand, my bet was there was little to be disappointed in. Even if you haven't been keeping up, you may want to jump on the bandwagon right now.
**** 1/2 out of *****
-bro sport
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