Washed Out / Within & Without

Washed Out
Within and Without
(Weird World)
* * *

It's certainly the right time of year to release a euphoric club album, seeing as how any second now thousands of festival goers will be jumping into their cars, howling down the motorway and requiring some 'summer grooves' to tap on the dashboard to. Dude, where’s our summer festival soundtrack? Right here dude.

Washed Out are another of those acts who are in fact 'just one person' despite the band-ish name, consisting as they do of a bloke called Ernest Greene and approximately no-one else. Greene’s mellow croon is splashed all over this record of mid-tempo dance numbers, each of which is designed to make you feel you're (1) on drugs, (2) having a very nice time thank you very much and (3) seeing everything in cosmic slow motion.

Animal Collective producer Ben Allen brings a tinge of liquid psychedelia to tracks like 'Before' (the jingle bells in particular lend it a Hindu temple vibe), while 'A Dedication' takes a fairly poignant acoustic-piano tune and adds a dose of post-euphoric space noise.

Elsewhere the album competently coasts along, neither igniting nor offending the listener's imagination: the title track bursts into a shimmering explosion of synths - but does little else beforehand, while elsewhere it can all feel a bit 'ecstasy on auto pilot'. Still, not too crap at all.
Ric Rawlins