CD of The Week

Few musical microgenres have burned out as quickly and dramatically in recent memory as "chillwave." And of the artists that pioneered and perfected the sound associated with that term, few came to embody it more than Ernest Greene, aka Washed Out, and his seminal single "Feel It All Around." Four years and three seasons of Portlandia later, Greene returns with his swirling, psychedelic sophomore effort, Paracosm.

If his 2011 debut Within and Without found Washed Out doubling down on a sound that many had already deemed tired, this album finds him waking up over the rainbow, his cup running over with technicolor trickery more akin to The Flaming Lips than Neon Indian. Single/leadoff track "It All Feels Right" could just have easily been a Soft Bulletin b-side. It's a jarring shift at first, but one that Greene not only wears well, but successfully matches with the more expected updates on his trademark sound. The best examples of those updates include the silky smooth "Don't Give Up," which sports his coolest, creamiest melody yet, and the wonderfully woozy "Weightless," which would be worthy of Heaven or Las Vegas-era Cocteau Twins if Liz Fraser spent more time on a beach.

Paracosm isn't perfect. While the more pastoral route Washed Out takes here is pleasing, poppier, punchier past efforts like "Echoes" and "You'll See It" are missed. That said, as it's title describes, Ernest Greene's latest work is an imaginative, inviting world, well worth revisiting.

You'll have the chance to revisit it again in fact when Washed Out brings it to Union Transferon September 19th.

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