Song of the Day | “The Hardest Part” by Washed Out

On “The Hardest Part,” a new single from a forthcoming full length, multi-disciplinary artist Ernest Greene, AKA Washed Out, displays his knack for whimsical soundscapes.

With a bubbly bassline and a rigid lead melody, it’s more pop-y and perhaps less ethereal than the music that made Washed Out ubiquitous in the mid-aughts (“Feel It All Around,” if you recall, was the theme song to the FX sketch comedy Portlandia, a pop-cultural touchstone for a generation now approaching middle age). But “The Hardest Part,” from Notes from a Quiet Life (due out June 28 on Sub Pop) shows Greene’s expansion as an artist and his willingness to diverge and experiment.

All songs featured in our Song of the Day series can be found on our Fresh Squeeze Playlist and in rotation on our music discovery radio station, The Independent.