The lead single and Flume’s biggest commercial hit. At first listen, it’s a sad Future Bass ballad. Kai’s raw vocal about pushing love away contrasts with the euphoric, stuttering drop. Lyrically, it captures the album’s theme of emotional dissonance. The Flume Skin album proved it could dominate Top 40 radio without sacrificing weirdness.
Flume has since released Hi This Is Flume (2019, a mixtape of chaotic beats) and Palaces (2022, a nature-infused album). Both are excellent. However, neither captured the lightning-in-a-bottle balance of accessibility and insanity present in Skin.
Skin sits alongside Discovery (Daft Punk) and In Colour (Jamie xx) as one of the essential electronic albums of the 2010s. It is the sound of a young producer realizing he can break every rule—because the rules were only temporary anyway.
If there is a unifying lyrical and sonic story to Skin, it is about transformation and exposure. flume skin album
For producers and audio engineers, the Flume Skin album is a textbook study in advanced sound design.
If you want the exact color/design used for a specific track or remix, check the official Flume YouTube topic videos – each has unique custom thumbnails from the Skin era.
Need help identifying a weird “Skin” cover you found on a bootleg or remix site? Drop a description below and I’ll help track its origin. The lead single and Flume’s biggest commercial hit
If you are revisiting the Flume Skin album for the first time in years, or discovering it fresh, here is how to do it right:
The story of Skin ends with massive validation. The album debuted at #1 on the ARIA Charts (Australia) and #8 on the US Billboard 200.
Crucially, Flume won the Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards. "Never Be Like You" was also nominated for Best Dance Recording. If there is a unifying lyrical and sonic
Skin successfully broke the "sophomore slump." It proved that electronic music could be experimental and weird while still dominating mainstream radio. It paved the way for Flume to release his follow-up mixtape, Hi This Is Flume (2019), where he would strip away the pop structure entirely, having now conquered it.
Upon release, the Skin album debuted at No. 1 on the Australian ARIA Charts and No. 8 on the US Billboard 200. It won the 2017 Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album, beating out heavyweights like Jean-Michel Jarre and Tycho.
But more important than awards was the critical consensus. Pitchfork gave it a 7.5, noting its "ambitious unpredictability." Rolling Stone called it "a bold step into the unknown." Even detractors admitted: no one else was making music that sounded like this.