I am increasingly conflicted about the proposition of chillwave as a genre. Of course, if you ask most chillwave artists whether or not such a genre exists, they will deny it, the same way a hipster will deny being a hipster, but it does exist and it has increasingly come to define our musical moment in time, and that is what I find so troubling. When I first heard Animal Collective, arguably the precursor for the genre, I was admittedly smitten by their nostalgic infantilism. It was a pleasant experience to listen to music that somehow triggered the idealized carefree days of a middle-class childhood, where one's biggest concerns (depending on your sex) were securing as many Star Wars/Strawberry Shortcake figures as possible, and watching Saturday morning cartoons. It wasn’t necessarily Animal Collective’s music that evoked such nostalgia, but their spontaneous joie de vivre, reflected in their ecstatic, but innocent, compositions. It wasn’t until more recently that chillwave, as we have come to know it, began evoking similar nostalgia by recycling the sounds of the 80s, albeit in much more modern, ironic and knowing way. Whereas Animal Collective evoked nostalgia by simply being childlike, chillwave evokes it by manipulating the listener with a regurgitation of lost and half-forgotten sounds from their childhood.
Admittedly, when I first heard Toro Y Moi and Washed Out, their plundering of the past sounded as fresh and exciting as youth itself. There is an undeniable romanticism to their music that even a jaded old cynic like myself is not impervious to. It isn't so much the music in isolation that has me questioning the genre, but both the context out of which it has arisen and the context of our moment in time in which we are receiving it. In the past my doubts and concerns melted away once the needle hit the record and I lost myself in the blissed-out sounds emitting from my speakers as a simple, and much needed, escape. Increasingly though, as chillwave becomes less of a novelty, and more of a permanent fixture, I find myself questioning, not just its viability, but its very appropriateness in what are horrifically unchill times. Now is most definitely not the time for us to escape into an idealized version of our childhoods. What troubles me even more about this is that the genre's sound is built on the faded memory of some of the most noxious music of the very same noxious decade that arguably planted the seeds of our current discontent. It is, after all, the saccharine sounds of the Reagan 80s that chillwave is most indebted to. Considering that the synthpop that informs bands like Washed Out was indicative of the shallow materialism that defined that era, and of which punk and the burgeoning American indie rock scene railed against so vehemently, chillwave is an increasingly hard pill to swallow. This is especially true now that Ronald Reagan’s anti-government, anti-tax rhetoric, which helped define the 80s, has come to fruition in the form of oppressive austerity programs the world over, causing incalculable amounts of suffering, including, now, here at home. There is a sense I get while listening to chillwave that I am listening to Nero fiddle as Rome burns. In other words, I just don’t feel that now is the time to really be chill about anything, and I particularly don’t feel like being chill to what is basically an idealized soundtrack of the 80s, the decade where everything began to fall apart. Having said all of that; after the first few bars of Washed Out’s debut album “Within and Without” begin to sink in, I cannot help but to capitulate.
Washed Out, a/k/a Ernest Greene, crafted the finest statement of chillwave to date with his outstanding ep “Life of Leisure” in 2009. A record born out of post-graduate isolation, it captured the halcyon days of summer that was read by some music writers, self included, as a reaction and escape from the dead-end realities facing today's twenty-somethings, while also containing just enough hope for a better tomorrow promised by the Presidential election the year prior. This time out, though, things look considerably worse for the country, but considerably better for Mr. Greene in the wake of the overwhelmingly positive reception for the seventeen minute plus statement that was "Leisure." As a result, "Within And Without" is one of the most anticipated albums of 2011, and the name Washed Out carries with it a certain recognition and esteem that not many artists get to enjoy. This is all a double-edged sword, of course, since Greene went from producing a few songs for what was initially a limited-edition record with zero expectations to having to follow up one the most universally loved releases of the past few years. There was also the concern, in this writer's mind at least, that he would not find inspiration beyond the humble circumstances that led him to tap into that moment in time, now past, which made "Leisure" so successful. The result, ultimately, is that he does and he doesn't.
"Within and Without" starts off where "Leisure" left off with "Eyes Be Closed," a song that sounds like it could easily fit into the track listing of the latter. It's a lazy beginning that regurgitates old ideas and themes. One can't really fault Greene, through, since this is exactly the type of song that we all went nuts for two years ago. It's an offering of the familiar before he expands and diversifies his sound throughout the rest of the album. The good news is that the majority of the new directions here work incredibly well, the bad news is that Greene loses something in translation with a full length release that has just enough moments of filler that I find myself questioning the whole chillwave genre for all of the reasons already stated.
Songs like "Amor Fati" and "Soft" start off strong, but after droning on between four to six minutes in length without much dynamic variation they devolve into generic synth-pop tracks, leading the listener to lose interest, and feel kind of guilty for wasting precious time with what is basically fluff. Thankfully, Greene hits his stride with the captivating "Far Away," a darker and more substantive piece than anything he has produced before. Cellos provide the brooding backbone of the track, which is already dour enough thanks to a downtempo bass and keys. It's very much Washed Out, but a more mature sounding Washed Out. As the album progresses the sound becomes more melancholic than before. The end result resembles a longed for half-remembered memory of summer, rather than the soundtrack of summer itself.
"Before" follows and sounds like a chillwave version of shoegaze, not a genre particularly known for its buoyancy, while "You and I" sounds very much like the end of a relationship, or at least the very hard work it takes to keep one going. Then there are my two personal favorite tracks on the record: "Within and Without" and "Dedication." Both are Greene at his most minimalistic, while still maintaining that Washed Out sheen. Each song speak of longing, striving and regret, and neither are going to soundtrack your summer deck party/bbq, but could do well during those early morning hours after.
I would like to think that Greene wrote the first part of this record two years ago, and the latter half in the subsequent space and time. The first half sounds like cast aways from "Life of Leisure," while the second half sounds like the work of an artist who has grown to be just as thoughtful as he sounded two years ago, but for a very different moment in time. If I am right about that than there is much hope for Washed Out, and "Within and Without" is the pathway to something grander and greater. As for chillwave; in some ways this record, as well as Toro Y Moi's latest offering, "Underneath The Pine," drives a stake through the heart of the very genre that Green and Toro's Chaz Bundick perfected, by moving away from the dream of an endless summer vacation toward the darker realities of relationships and life. That is an important step forward for both artists, because you simply cannot maintain your innocence forever without becoming delusional, particularly in the very cold times we are living in that are anything but chill.
"Far Away"
"Within and Without"
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