Washed Out -- Life of Leisure

8/10

I've got to be one of the few people who got into Washed Out through "Feel It All Around," but not by hearing it on Portlandia. Yes, I did indeed eventually hear the super-chill, yet head-bobbing "Feel It All Around" as the theme song for the Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein-starring comedic series (and I love that show!), but I first heard the song in promotion of Washed Out's Life of Leisure EP, still the only piece of music by Washed Out that I own. Or rather, I saw this beautiful, hypnotic, evocative video, back in late 2009, just a few days before my son was born.

Now that I think about it, the Life of Leisure EP, which I bought through an MP3 service that is now defunct, may be the last bit of music I purchased before becoming a father. Whatever the case, this is a highly enjoyable 18 minutes of music. Washed Out, aka, Ernest Greene Jr., combines hazy, bumping samples of 70's and 80's music, with shimmery, lo-fi, yet modern textures, to create a danceable musical space that's at once nostalgic and unique. It most definitely evokes the beachy vacation locale of its cover, the video I've posted above, and a carefree vacation in general. I've heard all of the full-length albums Washed Out has released since this EP, but Life of Leisure distills the best aspects of Greene's sound...the best. There's even a nice emotional arc here, as Greene stamps out the blueprint for his music over the first three tracks, perfects it with track four, "Feel It All Around," which I still think is his best song, then adds some tension and a bit of darkness with "Lately," before satisfyingly tying things up in a positive fashion with "You'll See It." My kid might be about to hit puberty, but I still dig Life of Leisure, and this is a sentence that makes no sense outside of the context of this review.

2009 Mexican Summer
1. Get Up 3:01
2. New Theory 2:52
3. Hold Out 3:29
4. Feel It All Around 3:16
5. Lately 2:02
6. You'll See It 2:55