Album Review: Skin by Flume

“Is it a banger?” Sydney producer Harley Edward Streten – aka Flume – cares not for such existential queries.

On his second studio album, the 16-track Skin, he dances around the ever-looming drop, adding synthesised, shimmering orchestral soundscapes to emo torch songs (like singles “Never Be Like You” and “Say It”, anchored by Kai and Tove Lo, respectively) or experimenting with hip-hop beats for game, genre-flirting guests (including Raekwon and Vince Staples, the latter of whom is getting pretty good at this.)

Elsewhere, he goes on lone, airy, exploratory audio-quests, as in the jittering “Wall F**k" and the gentle, plinking “Pika”. Sonic soulmates AlunaGeorge get a full six-minutes to wander aimlessly on “Innocence”, while a hook akin to a finger being run around the rim of a wineglass coalesces in the background. It's transfixing.

Churning out perfect pop singles in the Calvin Harris mould is not a priority here. Though Flume’s most accessible tracks feel like confection – again, the irrepressible “Never Be Like You” and “Say It”; about the best and slinkiest chart-toppers we can hope for this year - the lyrical content is somewhat more substantial (and self-critical) than, say, Harris’ “How Deep Is Your Love” and “This Is What You Came For” (if you need that added heft for your next karaoke night).

(Mild coarse language warning.)

And though the musical backdrop to each may not reflect his most inventive work, their singers are guided towards creative line-readings and idiosyncratic vocal cracks that, again, would not pass muster for most club-bound DJs. (I could listen to Kai cry “stop looking at me” on an endless loop.)

Disclosure, with their menacing Lorde and The Weeknd collaborations, are similar in spirit. Yet, not even Disclosure’s recent Caracal quite managed to pull off the wholeness of Skin, which feels complete and follows through on the unrealised potential of Flume's self-titled 2012 debut. (Maybe we shouldn’t look for comparative artists at this point, considering Flume is influential enough to have his own army of imitators already, all seeking to replicate “Flumestep”.)

Only the late “Like Water” featuring MNDR seems to betray an absence of ideas by the eventual arrival of its deflated refrain. We would have been happy with a 15-track record, Flume!

Is there an overall theme to the diverse Skin beyond Flume making his mark, or, at least, solidifying his status as Australia’s preeminent EDM artist? Perhaps not. That doesn’t diminish it. If anything, it’s a mission statement on the kind of producer he wants to be, and finally can be (given the grandiosity of his guests and what I’m presuming are “expensive sounds” now at his disposal). Hear Skin and finally get Flume.

(Mild coarse language warning.)

It’s a testament to the album as an entirely satisfying 60-minute venture that the closing track featuring Beck himself (“Tiny Cities”) is not a standalone highlight. Wu-Tang grad Raekwon offers an even more memorable performance on the imposing murder ballad “You Know”. And yet, the album’s biggest names can’t steal the show from the 24-year-old Sydneysider and his ethereal environments.

Tellingly, “You Know” opens with the lyrics, “sometimes you just gotta create your own… world.” Flume can cross that off his to-do list. Next?

4/5

Skin is now available.