Number 32 - Paracosm by Washed Out

 Number 32: Paracosm by Washed Out

Imagination run wild

Release: August 7th, 2013
Genre: Synth Pop
Favorite Tracks: It All Feels Right, All I Know, Weightless

 

Where I heard it: 

A month after I graduated high school in June of 2014, I embarked upon a cross-country road trip for the purpose of attending a drum festival on remote farm land in Asheville, North Carolina. Accompanying me on this journey was my good friend Mark, and a friend of his named Clint that hitched a ride to the festival with us. While the event was quite enjoyable, the road trip to Asheville was a spectacular nightmare riddled with a series of unfortunate events that were memorable for all the wrong reasons. All the while, Clint's short fuse only escalated the tension within stressful moments and wore down my fragile young mind. I loathed being enclosed in a metal box with him for a few days, but I have Clint to thank for introducing me to Washed Out's Paracosm. Each of us burned some CD's to play in Mark's car to pass the time while driving, and Clint's contributions were CHVRCHES' The Bones of What You Believe as well as today's entry, which oddly resonated with me in the wee hours of the morning driving through lush areas of Kentucky. This burned copy of Paracosm happened to make its way into my CD collection, and I grew attached to it over the multiple listens I've had since that time. There wasn't a lot of good to come out of that experience, but this album might be one of the better things.

 We'll be gone for a few nights
Meet up with the old crowd
Music's playing so loud
It all feels right
Close my eyes
Think about the old times
What's it all about?
The feeling when it all works out
~ It All Feels Right

 

What to expect:

Dubbed by Pitchwave as the Godfather of the chillwave subgenre, Ernest Greene's solo project Washed Out gained traction with listeners in 2011 when his song Feel It All Around was featured in the TV show Portlandia during its opening sequence. Although lampooned as trendy hipster music, Washed Out proved its staying power later that same year with the release of their debut album Within and Without that drew attention from listeners and critics alike. Hailed for its use of soothing synthesizer tones that inspire hazy, dream-like visions, Greene fully embraces this concept in his studio follow-up Paracosm. Named after imaginary fantasies within our minds, Paracosm paints vivid pictures of lost loves and times gone by through a lens of lyrical minimalism. Though his words are few, Greene's poignant diction evokes potent emotions with a creeping dissonance hiding within the haunting harmonization. The music matches the somber tone of Greene's lyrics, generating sleepy melodies that awaken feelings of nostalgia wrapped within the fog of our memories. The inclusion of rarely heard instruments such as harp and kalimba further enhances Paracosm's dreamy vibe, ensuring the listener is taken on a relaxing ride. Several production tricks are utilized to achieve this effect, such as subtle synthesizer oscillation in Don't Give Up or chirping birds in the transition between Falling Back and All Over Now. Each track appropriately works in conjunction with its lyrics, with Greene at the helm to masterfully engineer every element of Paracosm so every detail tweaked to his exact specifications. From its seamless song transitions to its elaborate track layering, Paracosm is both spectacular and impressive of a group to compose collaboratively, let alone recorded by a single artist. Washed Out is a wonderful break for those seeking refuge from the intensity of more aggressive genres like rock and hip-hop.

 

Our life is over
It's all been left behind
So many choices separate us now
I was still surprised when we met that night after all this time
And it took me back to the times we had
Even though that we're far apart
We've come so close and it feels so right
~ Don't Give Up

Why it's my favorite:

Although the majority of Paracosm's music is melancholic, I'm amazed at the wide spectrum of complex emotions that the album manages to cover during its short run time. I hear a longing desire for peace and closure that comes off bittersweet with the added conceptual context of Greene's imaginary perspective of this pursuit. There's an implication that the fulfillment of these desires are painfully null in actuality. However, this idea is never explicitly alluded to at any point of the album, leaving the open-ended meaning up for interpretation. I find that to be especially profound; the physical existence we experience is completely determined by the world view of the listener, whether that reality seems promising or hopeless. There are periods in my life where I might have agreed with the latter, but my perspective continues to grow as I get older. To me, Paracosm is a representation of the regrets we have in our lives that manifest through the conjurations of our brains, and the healing that comes as a result of addressing them. We may never attain the perfection of our dreams, but there is hope that we can capture a piece of it when we step out of our lucidity. Of course, this is all personally contrived theory that isn't confirmed by any other sources, but that's what makes Paracosm such a special album for me. If I knew what laid ahead of me in the years following my tribulations to Asheville, perhaps my problems would have seemed a lot smaller then like they do now. I have Paracosm as a constant reminder throughout my life that in the end, everything is going to be alright. It's not often that music gives me that safe place to come back to, but Washed Out has since taken me with arms wide open.