Washed Out — Purple Noon Review
Purple Noon doesn’t feel nostalgic or like a reinvention. It’s a record that sounds unsure of what it wants to achieve and struggles to achieve even that.
Ernest Weatherly Greene Jr. has released his fourth record under the Washed Out moniker. The producer out of Georgia U.S.A. was one of the forefathers of chillwave — the microgenre was one of the first prominent internet genres. And while the late 00s “summer of chillwave” popularised artists such as Toro Y Moi and Neon Indian, none was popularised more so than Washed Out, in no small part due to his hit ‘Feel It All Around’. Greene enjoyed relative success in the US and a little less success in the UK with his first two albums Within and Without and Paracosm but seems to have faded over recent years. In internet terms, chillwave is a meme that died a long while ago.
Purple Noon then, comes at a time when Washed Out is on a decline of relevance; for any real success, some reinvention would have been necessary but Greene didn’t seem to get that memo. The production quality is clearly the high point for Washed Out but the songwriting on the record really lets it down and sometimes Purple Noon is an album of rehashes of rehashes. There’s a lack of dynamism and the flatness ultimately leaves it wanting in vibrancy and emotion.
There are of course elements of this album that are genuinely interesting. The opening track ‘Too Late’ has effectively looped percussive elements, throbbing synth and a drifting vocal which shows promise. This promise sadly dissipates soon in ‘Face Up’, an ambient number with a refrain alike a poor version of Simply Red’s ‘Stars’. There’s an uptick again in single ‘Time to Walk Away’ with a glittery vocal and cruising beat which twinkles a little brighter and pursues a sway in us listeners, its quality only a little undermined by the whiff of pirate shanty and the Phil Collinsesque fills. Unfortunately, in hearing these three tracks, you’ve heard most everything the album has up its sleeves and any positive effect in the remainder is a callback to the positive moments in the opening trio. The fourth song, ironically named ‘Paralyzed’ is a literal shift into monotony and stillness.
Greene admits that the album is not a concept album but says it “does focus solely on one major theme” which is the stages of a love affair, through an initial meeting and all the way into heartbreak. ‘Hide’ is described as one of “the darker moments of the album” and allegedly examines the stage of a relationship where the subject needs to decide whether to try harder or move on. Album closer ‘Haunt’, about being chased by bad memories, is purportedly another darker moment and is in Greene’s words “by far the emotional climax”. While these songs feature slightly gloomier bass and deeper, echoed vocals in places, they fail to evoke any distinct feelings and ultimately, are pretty indistinguishable from the “uplifting” tracks. If the emotional apex of the album is ‘Haunt’ you could listen solely to that track and guess that the journey to it has been pretty uneventful.
As background music, tracks like ‘Game of Chance’ and ‘Reckless Desires’ are perfectly palatable but the vocal effects are now repetitive and forgettable and overall things are devoid of any real complexity. The album has one tone and meshes together to feel like one really long song which could have worked in a shorter form.
Purple Noon doesn’t feel nostalgic or like a reinvention. It’s a record that sounds unsure of what it wants to achieve and struggles to achieve even that. When dream-pop fails to sound dreamy and hauntology fails to haunt, then it cannot be deemed a success. The question remains that if a record struggles to be emotive, evocative or danceable, then what’s the point? This is underwhelming.