“ Go” might already be relegated to obscurity, hidden at the end of the record, despite its ardently cheerful mood and danceable moments. “ Love Light” is a more classic instrumental with sampled vocals that function as a sort of lead synth, but it lurches up and down keys in its verse in an unsettling way. “ Jasper’s Song” is the most straightforward sounding interlude where a piano sample gets gradually twisted, but compared to the quirkiness arising across the rest of the record, it feels like a pulled punch. “ DHLC” is a short number that embraces arpeggiated cacophony and satisfying reprises. The strongest of these is “ Get U”, which transitions mid track from a skulking dark rhythmic introduction into a muffled but bright vocal outro that’s utterly triumphant. The tracks without specific features are subtler pieces that give the record an interesting structure. “ Only Fans” induces tonal whiplash with its subject, but the Flume-isms in the production are entirely fitting for a tongue-in-cheek track. “ I Can’t Tell”’s promising dynamics are let down by its plodding pace and unsatisfying wonky-trap choruses, although Laurel‘s brilliant vocal performance is to be celebrated. It’s hit and miss though – “ Highest Building” is not as catchy or compelling as it needs to be as the record’s opener. “ Hollow” and “ Sirens” are soulful, stuttering singles that are well worth checking out, particularly the latter, where Caroline Polachek’s stunning vocals are constantly juxtaposed against abrasive rhythms and tremolo-filtered leads. “ Escape” also demonstrates that Flume‘s style is not simply split between pop tracks and quirky experiments – the chorus is a catchy, choppy instrumental break, with glitching laser gun synths that entwine with sampled vocals. “ Say Nothing” and “ Escape” are the strongest examples of Flume‘s abstract production choices on anthemic club songs, much like his past turbo-hit “ Never Be Like You”. The record benefits from a wide but consistent sonic palette, but the only thing missing is rapping – instead, most of the guest appearances end up on EDM ballads, which this record has perhaps too many of. The album contains a smorgasbord of features, giving the microphone to some lesser-known pop acts ( Oklou, MAY-A, Kucka, Quiet Bison, Laurel, Virgen Maria, and Emma Louise) and a few better-known ones ( Damon Albarn and Caroline Polachek). Palaces oozes his signature style – consistently bold production choices and wild synthesizers drenching cutting-edge pop songs and glitchy interludes.
Ten years after his first LP, Flume emerges again from the studio. You can listen to Things Don’t Always Go The Way You Plan below.“ It hurts to love and leave, I don’t love you lеss.“ In celebration of the release, Flume also announced a 10 Years Of Flume concert at the Kia Forum on May 5. The whole process has been quite cathartic. After seeing the reaction to Slugger 1.4 and how much love it got, I figured it would be fun to release more of these forgotten ideas I from my old laptops. It’s been ten years since my first record came out, since then I’ve wrote a lot a lot music and not all of it has seen the light of day. In a post on Instagram, Flume alluded to even more to come: The most recent is “One Step Closer,” a song that features Panda Bear. The earliest is “Why,” which was created during his Flume era in 2012 when he released his first full-length album. Each track name includes the year that Flume first exported it. Take “Rhinestone,” for instance, which was originally featured in a documentary Flume released in 2019. There are so many rare goodies on this release. There are 10 tracks in total, which were originally created between the years 2012 to 2021. The release comes in the form of a project aptly titled Things Don’t Always Go The Way You Plan. Flume has delivered on his promise to release a collection of songs he found on a handful of old laptops.