A 16-track electronic banger from start to finish. Even with tons of features from artists like Vic Mensa, Tove Lo, Vince Staples, Little Dragon, AlunaGeorge, Beck, and more – somehow there were just enough cooks in this kitchen and the results were delicious.
Usually when I come across an album tracklist longer than about 10 songs – or see this many features on an album – I start to get worried. Is the majority of the album just “filler”? Does the quality of your work not stand alone? WHO ARE ALL OF THESE PEOPLE?
I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG IN THIS CASE ABOUT NECESSARY COLLABORATIONS.
Not that I ever doubted Flume’s production for even a second, but these collaborations actually added so much energy and depth to the record’s concept. Every featured artist on Skin feels like they’re truly there for a reason, and the collaborations feel very organic, clean, and un-forced.
Each artists’ genre is incorporated seamlessly into Flume’s dynamic production work, and the vocals compliment the atmospheres he’s so generously created. Every song feels like a scene that I can visualize after just a few moments of listening.
Whereas 2012’s self-titled debut album had more of a choppy, sample-driven kind of vibe to me – Skin is SUPER clean and conceptual. The beautiful album artwork by Jonathan Zawada is what really caught my eye from the start. The highlights and textures in the images really capture the sounds incorporated into the tracks. These hyper-surreal images translated impeccably throughout his tours and merchandise and have held the Skin concept into place.
What I enjoy about the cleanliness of his work, is this lightly un-finished, off-kilter approach that some of the songs feature. Some notes and synths intentionally sound a bit off-key or slowed down, and beats tend to stutter here and there.
There’s very minuscule details incorporated into tracks like “Innocence” (featuring AlunaGeorge’s vocalist Aluna Francis) that simply blow my mind. There’s about 3 different occasions during this particular song where the tempo skips a beat ever-so-slighty … JUST ENOUGH to slowly shift the direction of the song to the off-beat, thus moving the emphasis of the vocals to another portion of the tempo – does that make sense?
Listen and see if you catch it! This is a really good fan-made video for the track, too.
When discussing the album track-by-track, Flume stated about “Innocence”:
I wanted to do something that had more of a progressive feel to it. Something that takes you on a journey, less of a verse/chorus feel. I started playing around with the vocal sample from Aluna, then we finished the song in the studio together.
But in contrast to trippy, atmospheric journeys like “Innocence” and “Numb and Getting Colder”, there still a plethora of songs with that deep, thundering bass that we love from his work. And per usual, we’ve got those very crisp, obscure sounds and highs, to really balance out the listening plane.
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