If you’re anything like me, one of the first times you heard a chillwave song was during the opening credits of Portlandia. The sequence was soundtracked by Washed Out’s “Feel It Around,” a buoyant and hazy number with roomy percussion and nostalgia-inducing synths. The track’s inclusion in the hit show made Ernest Greene a definitive artist in the fledgling genre, and now, a decade later, Washed Out has just released his latest effort Purple Noon.
The new album is the impetus for this week’s episode of Indiecast, which finds Steven Hyden and Ian Cohen digging into the rise and fall of the chillwave genre, starting and ending with Washed Out. Purple Noon is an album from a genre strongly associated with nostalgia, but also manages to provide nostalgia for… chillwave itself. In 2020, the genre has one that reminds millennials that they are getting older.
Also covered in the episode is Welcome To Conceptual Beach, the expansive, stunning new album from Young Jesus that is already a strong contender for Album Of The Year. Check out Steven Hyden’s review here.
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