2000's Jams #108: Washed Out "Feel It All Around" (2009)

Brief stabs of dub drums cheat into the mix. The synthesizers that drive the arrangement sound cheap and liquored-up, but are impeccably paced like a pour of great molasses. Somewhere, echoes of 10cc's breathy "I'm Not In Love" enter the picture, as does YMO's churning bass exploration "Naughty Boys". Greene seems dedicated to mapping a musical history that never actually existed but seems meticulously seen: a historical fiction re-imagining a lifetime of easy listening. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11455-feel-it-all-around/

The initial feeling we received from "Feel It All Around" was vague nostalgia, for a time that's somewhat unable to be placed, or may conjure different areas of memory for different people. For some reason, Y2K-era electronic music came to mind - Air, The Avalanches, or even the more ambient stuff from Richard D James. Washed Out could have fit within this era, taking the borrowed misplaced nostalgia approach, longing for the golden years of AM easy listening. It was the first official "chillwave" we ever heard. Within weeks, Neon Indian and Toro Y Moi were on the radar as well, paving the way for other chill lofi contemporaries.