Washed Out's got the theme music to your melancholy summer nights

As far as music taste goes, I like a lot of different things, but I tend to stick with what I know: buzzy indie guitar rock. Greatest rock band ever as far as I'm concerned is Sonic Youth. Rounding out a list of favorites would be Radiohead, Pavement, Pixies and Modest Mouse.* You get the idea.

I try to factor in those preferences when I approach writing about a record like Washed Out's new one, Within and Without, released by Sub Pop on July 12. It's a pretty good  example of where the "dream pop" or "chill wave" wing of indie music is right now: moody and ambient, yet eminently danceable music that owes a great deal to the keyboard-dominated new wave and U.K. pop of the early '80s.

Washed out has been a favorite band of the indie blog tastemakers, like Pitchfork, where the record scored a "Best New Music" tag and a rating of 8.3 (out of a possible 10).  The band -- which is really just a stage name for Earnest Greene and his laptop --  received a bunch of buzz on the release of last year's EP Life of Leisure, which featured a well-played single "Feel it All Around." (If you've watched Portlandia starring SNL's Fred Armisen and Sleater-Kinney's Carrie Brownstein, you've heard "Feel it all Around" during the opening sequence.)

I tend to have a knee-jerk reaction to dismiss music made primarily to create a cool vibe. I prefer tunes designed to strike fear in the hearts of those not yet acclimated to sounds of ear-splitting guitars playing against each other. There's something that just seems too easy about popping a melody on top of a steady rhythm and keyboard bass track.

Yet, I can still admire a guy for pursuing an aesthetic as ably as Greene does with Washed Out. In fact, Washed out is a perfect name for the mood Greene establishes with Within and Without. Over 9 songs and just over 40 minutes, Within and Without is a coherent if emotionally muted work of plain melancholy. It sounds exactly like the bedroom record a laptop wizard would whip up in response to the dissolution of a summer fling. It's steamy, sad and exhausted. It could be the score to a film about just that.

Don't get me wrong on "bedroom record", though. The album is intimate, but it's also a slick piece of production that further cements the reputation of producer Ben Allen, whose recent credits include Animal Collective's Merriweather Post Pavilion and Deer Hunter's Halcyon Digest, two records that dominated critics' polls the last few years. Allen has definitely helped the kind of atmospheric indie that shuns guitars distinguish itself on record. Within and Without is no different

Overall, it's not an exciting record, though exciting is clearly not what Greene is after. Instead he has succeeded in making a record that is hushed and intimate, yet not cerebral. Still, it's not just mood music. Within and Without strikes just the right balance between soundtrack and music you have to hear, particularly when considered against the backdrop of what's turning out to be a pretty quiet summer when it comes to new music worth talking about.

*note: That list could vary slightly on any given day I'm asked.