The Daily Spin II

Washed Out | Purple Noon

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: Purple Noon (2020)

Artist: Washed Out

Link:

From first glance, Purple Noon befits the sort of gauzy shimmer pop that lies throughout the record, with each vocal tone and heady rush of sound placed in such a manner that every track is curated to a specific memory. This is the sort of album that bleeds beating throughout, with emotive sound that pulls and whispers in the quiet moment and meets you head-on in the loud.

At least, that’s what I want to say about this album.

Instead, I find myself a little disappointed. Somewhere under the faded pastels, you can see the vision of what this album should be, but instead you’re treated to a version that is - unfortunately literally - washed out.

That’s the crux of the problem, really. You have a bunch of songs that individually are low nines or high eights together as lesser than the sum aggregate, in no small part because every single track is pushed about halfway back on the volume dial. There’s almost no pop to most of these tracks, and the few examples that do are the standout songs because of it.

It hits basically every single checkbox of mine, but falls a little boring in the end. Kind of a shame.

Rating: 7/10

Best Tracks: Too Late, Haunt

Worst Tracks: Don’t Go