''Within and Without'' is the debut studio
album by American singer
Washed Out, released on July 6, 2011 by
Sub Pop
Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...
. The album debuted at number 26 on the
''Billboard'' 200 with first-week sales of 15,000 copies, and by July 2013, it had sold 89,000 copies in the United States.
Artwork
The cover for ''Within and Without'' uses an image that also appeared in the May 2011 issue of ''
Cosmopolitan'' magazine, accompanying an article titled "Is This the Most Satisfying Sex Position?". Washed Out told ''
Exclaim!
''Exclaim!'' is a Canadian music and entertainment publisher based in Toronto, which features in-depth coverage of new music across all genres with a special focus on Canadian and emerging artists. The monthly Exclaim! print magazine publishes 7 ...
'', "We licensed the image from the photographer Martien Mulder from New York. I had seen the image in this avant-garde photography magazine while we were on tour in Australia and it was just an ad for one of her exhibitions. I loved it for a lot of different reasons. When we licensed it we thought we had exclusive rights to it and then a month later she licensed it again to ''Cosmopolitan''." He also stated he was disappointed to see the photo used in an article on sexual positions, "mainly because it undercut all of my ideas about what the image represented and what the album represented", as he felt "it wasn't sexual at all and it wasn't supposed to be provocative."
Critical reception
''Within and Without'' received generally positive reviews from music critics. At
Metacritic, which assigns a
normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an
average score of 70, based on 34 reviews.
Kevin Liedel of ''
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...
'' praised its juxtaposition of "warm, decades-old retrograde styles with the despondent, isolated, and decidedly modern mood of
rnestGreene's alienated narratives ... Melodies and instrumentation are infused with sunny, tender basslines and mellow synths that harken back to soft, '70s-era R&B rhythms, electrified '80s pop, and synth-heavy shoegaze, while Greene's muffled vocals and haunting atmospherics provide angst-ridden counterpoints."
Brandon Soderberg of ''
Pitchfork'' noted the album's improved production values compared to Greene's previous output, and called it a "declaration to snarky ironists that there is nothing to be ashamed of" about the chillwave genre.
However, Paul Lester of
BBC Music gave the album a mixed review, stating: "The rhythm is repetitive but sounds played rather than sequenced, offering the idea that ''Within and Without'' is less synthetic, more 'real', an unnecessary development considering how moving those early Washed Out tunes were, while production-wise the new material is actually a less punchy version of Greene's pristine melancholia, more waffly and wan."
Track listing
Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of ''Within and Without''.
*
Ernest Greene – art direction, production
* Ben H. Allen – bass guitar, mixing, percussion, production
* Mark Cobb –
rototoms
* Bradley Hagen – drums
* Jeff Kleinsmith – art direction, design
* John Maskew – recording
* Heather McIntosh – cello
* Martien Mulder – photos
*
Caroline Polachek – vocals
* Rob Skipworth – recording
Charts
Release history
References
{{Authority control
2011 debut albums
Sub Pop albums
Washed Out albums