Before he even released a full-length album, 28-year-old Georgia native Ernest Greene had become America’s ambassador for zonked-out electro-pop - a.k.a. "chillwave." His gorgeous debut proves why he’s the dude for the job: Within and Without's nine tracks are full of perfect Quaalude grooves: stacks of lush synths and layers of harmonized vocals set to gently thumping beats. Ben Allen, who produced Animal Collective's breakthrough Merriweather Post Pavilion, helps Greene sculpt opener "Eyes Be Closed" into an ecstatic reverie, while bringing in some of the slippery drums that defined 1990s trip-hop ("Within and Without") and even some Erasure-style dance-pop ("Amor Foti"). Greene's best trick: Using those elements of the past while crafting an album that sounds like a beautiful, dreamy future.

Listen to "Eyes Be Closed":  

“Everyday People”

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.