Flume instagram review
The final instrumental in this, Flume’s sophomore album, is simply titled “Free,” and it embodies every sense of the word. Although this is not the best vocal performance on the LP, by a longshot, “Like Water” gives listeners a breath from this intensely immersive listening experience that is Skin before going into the final two tracks. If you are too, check out one of her most popular songs here. “Like Water” features MNDR, an American singer/songwriter who I was unfamiliar with up to this point. AlunaGeorge shines in this feature, as always, and to be straight up: this song makes me want to fire up a joint and gaze into the sunset, rid of any typical worries. “Innocence” comes next, and is the longest song on the record, landing at over 6-minutes in length.
#FLUME INSTAGRAM REVIEW SKIN#
Contrasted with the love song that is “Take A Chance,” featuring Little Dragon, I believe that this portion of Skin is the most cohesive. “You Know” with Allan Kingdom and Raekwon is an aggressively dark, 3-something minute hip/hop collab that exudes raw power and honesty.
The next quarter of the LP includes some of the most exciting features on the album. Hardly worth a mention, the next piece, “When Everything Was New,” serves its place well as a brief interlude brimming with samples of children playing and water trickling by before diving back into the heart of Skin. It’s my favorite instrumental from the lot for this reason, although I wish it came just a few ticks later in the listing. “3” bridges the old Flume with the new, at points feeling like we’re back in his debut album before quickly yanking us back to the reality that is behind-the-beat percussion and left-of-field sound schemes. As an early released single, this trio collab doesn’t do terribly much to impress, but it ages well.
“Smoke & Retribution,” with Vince Staples and Kučka (again), brings the album back from the paired tangential trip in abrupt fashion. Beginning with “Wall Fuck,” which listens more like an experiment than a true song, “Pika” follows with an eery vocal sample and off-kilter, repetitive melody that bounces inescapably among the catacombs of my mind. The next few tracks are where Flume really goes off the rails. But, this unique formula is what makes the track so appealing to me. With no “drop” in sight, it feels more akin to an anthemic ballad than a song destined for the airwaves. Titled “Number & Getting Colder,” Kučka’s lofty vocals swell alongside a more minimal production that capitalizes on jovial synths and a powerful, ambient atmosphere. My personal favorite track lies just between these two records. His simplified beats back the vocals with just enough presence to make me wonder if they’ll ever end up on US radio despite the high-profile nature of the two. However, his collabs with Vic Mensa (“Lose It”) and Tove Lo (“Say It”), which make early appearances at tracks #3 and #5, respectively, are clearly dialed back from his excessively experimental tendencies riddled throughout the rest of this sophomore effort.
The opening track, “Helix,” feels very old-school Flume, and everyone knows its smash-hit successor “Never Be Like You” already. As the album begins, it becomes quickly apparent that Streten has evolved his sound, citing a prevalence of copycats given his prior success, yet it all remains indisputably Flume. Of 16 tracks, 10 vocal collabs are supplemented by 6 pure instrumentals which vary from downright weird to exactly what we’ve come to expect from Flume. The feature list includes Kai, Kučka, Vic Mensa, Tove Lo, Vince Staples, Raekwon, AlunaGeorge, Little Dragon & even Beck. The 24-year-old Harley Streten brought on board some of the biggest names from pop to hip/hop and everywhere in between for Skin. It has been four long years since Flume’s self-titled debut album which quickly elevated the Aussie to international superstardom.īut, as they say, the sophomore album is the hardest, especially with a start like his. His sophomore LP effort, Skin, a 16-track, hour-long display of mind-bending sound design & appropriately intricate songwriting. He’s teased, teased & teased some more, but now it has finally arrived. Congratulations to Flume for winning his first ever Grammy award for this, his sophomore album Skin!