FLUME

Artist: Flume

Album: Flume 

Genre: Brilliance. 

There aren’t many things that make me feel inferior in life, but when 20 year old Harley Streten, who goes by the alias of Flume, smashes out an album of such genius (that’s already hit Number 1 on the iTunes charts in AUS), I tend to get a little down on myself. I, and the rest of the music community, am completely in shock when it comes to the debut self-titled album Flume, released under Future Classic. For a debut album by someone so young, the level of maturity this album holds is an astonishing rarity. A friend had sent me the song “Sleepless” a couple of months ago, maybe four hours after it was released, and I remember feeling quite a visceral attraction to the track. I had been keeping low to moderate tabs on our friend Flume, and it was when I heard “Holdin On” that I knew his album was going to be unreal. Days later, after I made myself a cup of tea and cleared my mind of all stresses in order to buy the album and give it my undivided attention; I was absolutely blown away. I think the one thing I noticed with the album is how ballsy (for lack of a better word) he was in creating these tracks. He doesn’t stay within one sound, which is the safe route most artists take on debuts, but the confidence Flume exudes on this album is what makes it such a standout. He ranges from the atmospheric and kind of dream pop tracks like “What You Need” and “Star Eyes” to indie sounding tracks that focus on soul wrenching vocals like “Left Alone,” all the way down to alternative hip hop with “On Top” featuring T.Shirt. Tracks like “Insane” and “More Than You Thought” force you into slow motion deep thoughts or like they could score the sequel to the movie Drive. The album evokes a happiness I thought was lost in our generation, not to mention you can dance to the entirety of the album.