Palaces / Flume / May 20, 2022
- Joshua Yoo
- Jul 25, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 22, 2022
Since the beginning, Flume’s music has fluctuated between his mainstream stadium-level bangers with A-list guest collaborators, and his inventive brand of glitchy, experimental electronic that put his name on the map in the first place (and refined greatly on his 2019 mixtape). On ‘Palaces’, it seems that he’s trying to straddle the line between the two to the best of his ability, for an album experience that offers a decent heaping of both creative production and cohesive hits.
On the guest collaborations side of the project, Flume often relies on a familiar formula from his previous hits, with soaring vocal hooks, tense buildups, and cathartic distorted drops. Although this formula doesn’t always stick, there is an undeniable quality to these types of tracks that generates a distinct kind of excitement, where the arcs of songs such as “Hollow” lead to a fun climax of rave energy.
On the more left-field cuts, it’s nice to see Flume continuing to not be afraid of testing new sound palettes. “Go” and “Get U”, for example, are both uniquely jagged experiences filled with beautiful pockets of instrumentation that all come together beautifully.
There also seems to be a subtle, underlying sense of peace that pervades the album as a whole. It surfaces in moments such as the glistening “Jasper’s Song” or the self-titled closer with Damon Albarn, where it feels like Flume is naturally very comfortable in his sound and output right now. Even the tracks on the album that lack bite or refinement are a testament to this idea, and it makes the next project that Flume releases that much more anticipated knowing this.
Highlight(s): ESCAPE, Jasper’s Song, Go, Get U, Palaces, Hollow
Lowlight(s): I Can’t Tell, Only Fans
SCORE: 7/10
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