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Music
Hi This Is Flume reintroduces Flume's experimental edge
The title track of “Hi This Is Flume” begins the album perfectly. It layers snippets of the Australian producer introducing himself in interviews and becomes more cluttered until the end of the 28-second track. There are no other noises — his speaking voice fills every corner as the song transitions into the next. It’s a gimmick, but a fitting one. Flume has been active since 2011, but “Hi This Is Flume” is a reintroduction.
There’s never been this level of anxiety for the future until now, and his spastic, robotic and chaotic music encapsulates it. This generation doesn’t know which will come first — the apocalypse or the singularity. But if nuclear war comes, “Hi This Is Flume” will soundtrack humanity’s last dance parties in fallout shelters.
Romance is complicated, ridiculous, and comical — but never boring
While titled Romance Is Boring, the group proves romance is anything but. It’s panoramic in scope but sharp in focus: lead vocalist Gareth Campesinos! explores love and relationships through an abundance of angles, penning vignettes ranging from dire to ridiculous.
On Romance, they owe just as much to the dissonance of Sonic Youth and Dischord Records as the indie-pop of Beat Happening and K Records. They never shed the sugary melodies, but this go-round, every saccharine note is drenched in static. The once-bright guitar tones become speaker-blowingly overdriven; even the violins manage to sound menacing in spots. The symphony of assorted instruments loosens and contracts to amplify the lyrical content in a grandiose way.
Homecoming is the live album of a lifetime
Live albums usually fall flat. Artists rarely capture the same sound of their studio recordings, and even if they do, their performances seldom add to the original product. Live albums can be a disservice to the charisma a bonafide star can provide in person.
Beyonce’s “Homecoming” is an exception.
It’s a performance of a lifetime captured by a live album that shares its magic with everyone who couldn’t see it live. As one of the premier stars of the last two decades, she presents her six solo studio albums and extensive body of collaborative work in a two-hour window that transports the audience into Beyonce’s world — one where she’s the queen. Just how Beyonce transformed my view of pop music with “Lemonade,” “Homecoming” showed me how transcendent a live album can be.
Underground albums you may have missed
Post-punk group Parquet Courts’ most recent offering showcases the band’s growth over its seven years together. On “Wide Awake!,” the band delivers energetic, Southern rock-inflected punk that brought it to fame. Tracks such as “Total Football” and “Almost Had to Start a Fight/In and Out of Patience,” show the New York band still has the youthful vitality of a debut album.
On Devonté “Dev” Hynes’ fourth full-length under the Blood Orange moniker, his trademark rhythm and blues stylings remain mellow without sacrificing distinction. “Negro Swan” explores the experience of blackness and its societal limitations, but instead of conforming to these boundaries, he uses the album as a vehicle to break free of them. Spoken word occasionally interrupt songs to ask why black people are expected to stay in their place and kept from “doing too much.”