Washed Out: Within and Without
Ernest Greene, credited with founding the genre of music known as chillwave, has just come out with his first full-length release.
(Sub Pop)
**
Washed Out’s first full-length release is “as suited to bedrooms and headphones as to swanky nightclubs,” said Liz Pelly in The Boston Phoenix. Following two hit EPs from 2009, the synth-pop sensation Ernest Greene, who records as the one-man band Washed Out, “amps it up exponentially” here with live instruments and “more meticulously crafted songs.” Washed Out is credited with starting and popularizing the genre of music known as chillwave—a hybrid of synthesizer music and indie pop. But his success is in some ways his downfall, said Carrie Battan in The Boston Globe. Because the music world has “been inundated with so many sound-alikes since Greene started out, and because the genre’s lethargic haze is inherently lacking in punch,” this album arrives already feeling flat. “Easy to listen to, but impossible to feel excited about,” Within and Without is “compelling evidence that chillwave’s allure” has already faded.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Nvidia hits $4 trillion milestone
Speed Read The success of the chipmaker has been buoyed by demand for artificial intelligence
-
X CEO Yaccarino quits after two years
Speed Read Elon Musk hired Linda Yaccarino to run X in 2023
-
Are right-wing conspiracy theorists turning on Trump?
Today's Big Question The administration's Jeffrey Epstein announcement has sparked a MAGA backlash