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Don’t forget to rate this album at the end of the post (something I’m trying out)
Washed Out
Life of Leisure EP
Mexican Summer
out October 20th
69/100
[Rating Scale]
[rating:69/100]
Life of Leisure is an appropriate title for an EP that sounds like partying all night in a dark, sweaty room and waking up on a beach at dawn next to someone you like, cold sand in your hair. Like night-swimming, half your face submerged, and the moon across the water. Like walking home on sandy streets lined with resorts, gently holding someone’s hand, feeling in your chest the distant pulsing bass from basements and passing cars. It sounds like something sweet and simultaneously sharp – fruit-flavored vodka? It doesn’t sound like dance music or party music or techno music – it is a sensuous electronic whirlwind, but that isn’t really a genre, is it?
There is great pop sensibility to this EP: the electro-sexiness you usually hear behind the vocal stylings of Justin Timberlake, production-altered vocals, a youthful energy. Songs like “Get Up” have a kind of quiet, wistful mystery, shrouded in fuzz and fog, heavy bass and sharp computerized percussion, something to shake your head and your hips to. Others, like “You’ll See It” (my favorite) and “New Theory” are synth riffs reminiscent of a more electronic Cure, heavily produced vocals, and a fantastic positivity. It is quite sexy, maybe without meaning to be – Ernest Greene, Washed Out’s mastermind, has a great, lush voice; the tempo of some songs is reminiscent of passionate slow-dances; the bass throbs and pulsates beneath everything.
Washed Out knows how to write a pop song, and therein lies its greatest problem. It knows how to write a pop song, really, a single variety – that distant voice, those loops of computer fuzz, drum machine, thudding bass. For better or worse, Life of Leisure blends together – it could be one song, or it could be six. This lends both a great sense of continuity and a less great tendency to getting a little boring in the middle. The first and second and sixth tracks are the only three that truly stood out to me. And three out of six isn’t bad, certainly, but it isn’t good either. I doubt it was Greene’s intention to create a collection of music that could so easily fade into the background, all connected. The songs are well-crafted, certainly, but perhaps too alike to be perfect.
Whatever the case, Life of Leisure has the bittersweet taste of the end of summer all wrapped up in a seventeen-minute package, quite a good set of songs for those days when you have to look back and think hard to remember everything – every sleepless night dancing, every star in the sky, the sound of waves on every vacant beach.
Stream the entire album here, thanks to Lala. All you need is account. If you don’t have one, make sure to set one up. It only takes a second.
Tags: Washed Out
Fair review, I really can't argue, though not even hitting 7/10 is killing me, just a little. I've been listening to the EP nonstop for hours.
Yeah, even Pitchfork gave them an 8.0 http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13438-life-...
You're so right. All of the songs do sound alike, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, right? 6 great songs, even if they're all the same, is a lot better than 6 bad songs.
The way I like to think of it is that it's all just one track. One long 20 minute track.
This was pretty boring in my opinion. Why does beach music have to sound so dull? I don't get artists like the Drums, WAVVES, and Washed Out. When I think beach, I think rock n roll.. beach boys, etc.. but modern music? hmmm.. Maybe something like Beat Radio or Little Red. Also Vampire Weekend, Hockey, and Harlem Shakes.
Hell, the entire PMA Summer Playlist
I don't understand how this blog is such a great source for new music, but how I never agree with the reviews anymore.
Washed Out deserves AT LEAST a 7!
If only because he released this as we head into autumn and lo-fi vocals are perfect for this time of year…
I like it too, but listening to it more than once or twice through does get a bit tedious and monotonous. Sorry. That wouldn't make it a “stand out in its genre,” though it might be a stand-out in the music landscape right now. But we all know that changes week-to-week.
RE: 70-74 — Damn good. A stand-out in its genre. http://prettymuchamazing.com/the-pretty-much-am...
I don't think it's tedious at all. I love how layered the songs are and how the lo-fi vocals draws attention to the beat. Because the EP is ALL about the beat.
Like in “You'll See It” there is a distinct 1,2 1,2 rhythm and then before that bottle-whistly synth there are these little 1beat blips that are like tiny dance breaks, saying: “Okay, ready?” And then it revs up with that whistle.
Also, there's a level of simplicity to all of the songs that sort of winks to the listener. (”Feel It All Around” for example.) It's like a Franz Kline painting or something. You almost question if you could make something like it in Garageband, but then when you really think about it – at least for me and not being able to sing or compose – it's a lot more complicated.
Plus there's something to be said for the uniformity of the sound. The beats are kind of crushing and he presents a full array of how that kind of sound can be played. (”Get Up” being a perfect intro because the weighty beat is noticeable absent from the start of the song and then it's there and carries throughout the entire EP.)
It feels like artists who create albums with more uniform sounds (YACHT, who I don't like, and The Juan McClean, who I do, as other examples) are less concerned with creating singles. It might mean songs as a whole are less identifiable, but you can definitely point to the album and artist they come from. In that regard, I think it lacks a lot of “pop sensibility,” but in a way that makes you value the contribution to “electro” as something more artful and concerned with creating a piece of music, rather than a few good dance songs.
So… If he's not a stand-out, who is? And what “genre” are you judging him under?
All valid, and accurate points. Everything you mentioned above is exactly why I love Washed Out and this EP. But, I guess, these same reasons also stop me from listening to Washed Out over and over again. Something I never had trouble doing with Memory Tapes, The Big Pink or Neon Indian's albums (artists I usually group Washed Out with).
Now that Memory Tapes album.. that's a standout
and The Big Pink's debut blows my fucking mind.
I don't think it's tedious at all. I love how layered the songs are and how the lo-fi vocals draws attention to the beat. Because the EP is ALL about the beat.
Like in “You'll See It” there is a distinct 1,2 1,2 rhythm and then before that bottle-whistly synth there are these little 1beat blips that are like tiny dance breaks, saying: “Okay, ready?” And then it revs up with that whistle.
Also, there's a level of simplicity to all of the songs that sort of winks to the listener. (”Feel It All Around” for example.) It's like a Franz Kline painting or something. You almost question if you could make something like it in Garageband, but then when you really think about it – at least for me and not being able to sing or compose – it's a lot more complicated.
Plus there's something to be said for the uniformity of the sound. The beats are kind of crushing and he presents a full array of how that kind of sound can be played. (”Get Up” being a perfect intro because the weighty beat is noticeable absent from the start of the song and then it's there and carries throughout the entire EP.)
It feels like artists who create albums with more uniform sounds (YACHT, who I don't like, and The Juan McClean, who I do, as other examples) are less concerned with creating singles. It might mean songs as a whole are less identifiable, but you can definitely point to the album and artist they come from. In that regard, I think it lacks a lot of “pop sensibility,” but in a way that makes you value the contribution to the “electro” genre because it's not just creating a novel synth-heavy dance song or two.
So… If he's not a stand-out, who is? And what “genre” are you judging him under?
All valid, and accurate points. Everything you mentioned above is exactly why I love Washed Out and this EP. But, I guess, these same reasons also stop me from listening to Washed Out over and over again. Something I never had trouble doing with Memory Tapes, The Big Pink or Neon Indian's albums (artists I usually group Washed Out with).
Now that Memory Tapes album.. that's a standout
and The Big Pink's debut blows my fucking mind.