Ernest Greene – for he is Washed Out – returns with a second album that looks to build on the success of the first, ‘Within And Without’. For some reason Greene seems to have been held up as an ambassador of ‘chillwave’, which is unfair to his music and a pretty horrible name to start with! What he does here though is to build on the success of the first, blissful album – by making a second, blissful album with a few more beats in evidence, and a lot of live instruments, together with stronger songwriting that explores the principal of escapism. Once the sweeping harps and birdsong pan out, the opener ‘Entrance’ evolves beautifully into a lilting reggae track, which sounds horrendous on paper but works really well in practice. Elsewhere we have characteristically lush textures, but on a track like ‘Great Escape’ the greater prominence of the beats works really well. Greene’s vocals are as dreamy as ever, effortlessly evoking the hot climate this album works best in. If it’s not hot, though, ‘Paracosm’ is still a treat for the smaller hours.
