We’re taking it to the (electronic) streets. I listened to the latest album by Flume. I needed a break from Chance the Rapper (pure fire). Let’s delve deep.
There’s a reason I wanted to listen to this but we’ll get to that in a little bit. Can we talk about Helix? The intro track starts off so slow. I’m not exactly sure why but all of a sudden the bass drops and man that small taste has me bopping my head the whole way through. I wished it lasted longer. We get the final 60 seconds of this 210 second track and the beat is blazing. I need that part on loop alone. Never Be Like You comes in pretty solid. Lose It gives us Vic Mensa rapping for a solid double to give us runners in scoring position. (Helix is the equivalent to a 10 pitch at bat that leads to a solo shot into a mezzanine deck).
Numb & Getting Closer is a cool “take you down” song for you and your significant other to relax to or to get things started. Say it breaks out Tove Lo gives a pop feel. The track feels more ballad although the lyrics slightly suggest otherwise. Which makes sense because the next song is Wall Fuck, which is exactly the type of song in some weird rom com that hipsters wanna go crazy in bed with.
Pika is unremarkable but OK I guess. Nothing to write home about. Then we get Vince Staples on Smoke & Retribution. Another solid track. Like most solid tracks I think of them as songs if they’re playing in the background you’ll vibe to but wouldn’t take the initiative to learn all out. The next 2 tracks are kinda meh. “3” and “When Everything Was New” are ok but do not stand out at all. They’re ok for a change of pace. But next up we have “You Know” with Allan Kingdom. Kingdom, you might know from Kanye’s “All Day” and is joined by… wait… it can’t be…
The Chef?! Shallah Diamond himself! Lex Diamond in the flesh! Raekwon on this electronic track to keep cashin dem checks. Kingdom is more of the featured artist on this track but I’ll be damned if I didn’t acknowledge the solid, at worst, work of the Wu member. Home run effort by both lyricists. We then follow it up with Little Dragon’s contribution to this album in “Take a Chance.” Cool song for you and your partner to sit on the swing and rock back & forth. Thinking about your future as you watch dandelions bloom with the sun beaming. And the girl tosses her hair and gives you that smile. It’s one of those efforts.
AlunaGeorge comes out with Innocence. Not a terrible effort, but could be better as usually their efforts are pretty well spoken for; I love White Noise and You Know You Like It still goes hard in the paint, original and DJ Snake remix. Especially when it’s the longest song on the album clocking at over 6 minutes. We’re slowly winding down with MNDR’s contribution in “Like Water.” This album has low hey had a feminine romantic vibe so this seems to be more of the same. I’m with it. “Free” is straight up instrumental with nothing much to it. The build up to the bass kicking in still has that laid back feel to it. A lot of these tracks I feel like would go down well at Burning Man. Speaking of hipster idols, a personal (casual) fave of mine in Beck closes out the effort. 4 min of laid back grooves to ride out to.
(Editor’s note: Beck is 45. Loser is 22 years old. I need a drink).
Metacritic gave this album a 75 out of 100, which sounds about the range that this album should be in. It’s a solid effort. Most EDM (lumping you all in) artists traditionally have better remixes than they do original work. Either way, you can pop this in for date night and the TV isn’t on (as in no Netflix and Chill). On a scale of Russell Westbrook fashion to Andre 3000 fashion, I’m giving Flume’s effort a 6.5 out of 10. Now I’m gonna listen to more Chance and debate on whether I should write about that, KAYTRANADA (which I haven’t listened to), or Anderson.Paak. In the meantime, give Flume some streams.