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.
