''Palaces'' is the third studio album by Australian

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic co ...

musician

Flume A flume is a human-made channel for water, in the form of an open declined gravity chute whose walls are raised above the surrounding terrain, in contrast to a trench or ditch. Flumes are not to be confused with aqueducts, which are built to t ...

, released on 20 May 2022 through

Future Classic Future Classic is an Australian independent record label, artist management team, touring agency, and music publisher that was founded in 2004. The label's current roster includes Flume, Flight Facilities, Ta-ku, Jagwar Ma, Seekae, Panama, ...

. It includes collaborations with

Oklou Marylou Mayniel (born 23 April 1993), better known by her stage name Oklou (ˈəʊˈkeɪ luː), is a French musician, singer, music producer, DJ, composer, and actress. Early life Marylou Maniel was born on 23 April 1993, in Poitiers, France. M ...

May-a Maya Cumming (born 2001), known professionally as MAY-A (stylised in all caps), is an Australian singer-songwriter from Sydney, New South Wales. On 2 February 2022, Cumming was featured on the single " Say Nothing", a collaboration with Austr ...

, Quiet Bison,

Kučka Laura Jane Lowther, known professionally as Kučka (stylised in all caps; pronounced ; Serbo-Croatian for " bitch"), is an English-born Australian singer and producer. Lowther is known for her solo works, in addition to her collaborations wit ...

Laurel Laurel may refer to: Plants * Lauraceae, the laurel family * Laurel (plant), including a list of trees and plants known as laurel People * Laurel (given name), people with the given name * Laurel (surname), people with the surname * Laurel (mus ...

, Virgen María, Emma Louise,

Caroline Polachek Caroline Elizabeth Polachek (born June 20, 1985) is an American singer, producer and songwriter. Raised in Connecticut, Polachek co-founded the indie pop band Chairlift while studying at the University of Colorado. The duo emerged from the late- ...

and Damon Albarn. The album was announced alongside the release of

lead single A lead single (also known as a debut single) is the first single to be released from a studio album by an artist or a band, usually before the album itself is released and also occasionally on the same day of the album's release date. Release s ...

" Say Nothing", featuring May-a. At the

2022 ARIA Music Awards The 2022 ARIA Music Awards were the 36th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) and consist of a series of awards, including the 2022 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA ...

, the album earned Flume a nomination for ARIA Award for Best Solo Artist and album was nominated for Best Dance/Electronic Release, Best Cover Art, Best Produced Album and Best Mixed Album. The album was nominated for Australian Album of the Year at the

2022 J Awards The 2022 J Awards are the 18th annual J Awards, established by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's youth-focused radio station Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian radio station ...

Background and recording

After returning to Australia following the end of his world tour in support of ''

Skin Skin is the layer of usually soft, flexible outer tissue covering the body of a vertebrate animal, with three main functions: protection, regulation, and sensation. Other animal coverings, such as the arthropod exoskeleton, have different de ...

'' (2016) and ''

Hi This Is Flume ''Hi This Is Flume'' is the first mixtape released by Australian electronic musician Flume. It was released on 20 March 2019 by Future Classic. The mixtape follows the release of Flume's '' Skin: The Remixes'' in 2017. ''Hi This Is Flume'' was ...

'' (2019), Flume moved to a coastal town in the

Northern Rivers Northern Rivers is the most north-easterly region of the Australian state of New South Wales, located between north of the state capital, Sydney, and encompasses the catchments and fertile valleys of the Clarence, Richmond, and Tweed rivers. ...

area of

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, where he says he found "inspiration from the flora and fauna surrounding him". He also made

field recording Field recording is the term used for an audio recording produced outside a recording studio, and the term applies to recordings of both natural and human-produced sounds. It also applies to sound recordings like electromagnetic fields or vibra ...

s of birds, which are used throughout the album. According to Flume, the album was also influenced by late Scottish producer Sophie.

Release and promotion

Flume announced the album and its track listing on 2 February 2022, also releasing the song " Say Nothing" featuring May-a as the album's lead single and its music video the same day. The video contains similar visuals to those Flume uploaded on his NFT website throughout 2021. Flume said the track is about "feelings of post relationship clarity" and was written "midway through 2020 while the pandemic was still pretty new", although it was finished in early 2021. "Sirens" featuring American singer

, was released as the second single on 1 April 2022. "Escape", co-produced by Quiet Bison and featuring Australian singer

, and "Palaces" featuring British singer Damon Albarn, were released as a double single on 24 April 2022. "Hollow" featuring Australian singer Emma Louise was released on 18 May 2022 as the fourth single.

Critical reception

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 72, based on 6 reviews.

Track listing

All tracks produced by Flume, except where noted.

Charts

References

{{Flume 2022 albums Albums produced by Flume (musician) Flume (musician) albums Albums produced by Danny L Harle