Washed Out “Feel It All Around”/ “Belong”
South Carolina’s Ernest Green sure picked a fitting moniker for his musical persona in Washed Out, being that his stuff sounds like someone dubbed the tunes off the radio onto a cassette tape which then spent a few weeks lying at the bottom of the ocean. But beneath all that damn lo-fi (or as his MySpace so geniusly calls “no-fi”) haze, Green proves to be a masterful bedroom pop-crafter, conjuring up some of the most dreamiest John Hughes-ian (R.I.P.) synth-pop we’ve heard this year.
’80′s prom night ballad “Feel It All Around” seems to float in mid-air under the dense fog of blurried vocals and an entrancing sloth of a White boy soul groove while the equally misty “Belong” slams boulder-sized drums atop a restless tropical bounce as a multi-layered chorus emotes a string of indecipherable lyrics that sound like they’re being bellowed from the mountaintops above.
Perfect background music for one of those lonely Sunday afternoon chill-out moments or to dress up the numbing lull of a long road trip, Washed Out’s creations (hear more here) may bring about this undying need to clean the guck out of your ears when listening to them, but somehow that only adds to their calming charm.
WO’s limited-edition debut High Times arrives this September via Mirror Universe in cassette (!!) form and through Mexican Summer on vinyl.
DL: “Feel It All Around” (alt)
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