Progressive influences are becoming incredibly popular in the international underground at the moment, and they’re quite prominently featured in the latest single from Flume, “Say Nothing.” “Say Nothing” has Flume teaming up with singer May-A for an urgent pop anthem that has a heady art-rock undertow, at least from an aesthetical perspective, and it’s only through the progressive stylization of its beat and lyrical narrative that we can appreciate just how powerful a fireworks show the chemistry between these two artists is yielding. They’re bringing out the best in one another and producing something that sounds more fierce than it does predictably flamboyant.
The yearning in the lyrics is made even stronger through the presentation May-A gives her batch of verses in “Say Nothing,” but thanks to the counterbalance offered by Flume, we never sink too deep into angst-ridden territory. You can tell there’s a lot on both of their minds in this performance, and that they’re not forcing any emotion to the forefront of the mix – this is authentic, honest, and the result of artists connecting in a way that isn’t normally possible when living by the code of scene politics, much as their predecessors once did.
Watch the video for “Say Nothing” below
Flume’s lead vocal is intentionally distressed with the beat as if to imply that his verses are completely tethered to the uneven groove of the rhythm. It’s symbolic of the poetic depth that he’s offering us with his words and a perfect extension of the mood he wants to set with the harmonies he creates beside May-A, and as much as this is thoroughly a collaborative release for the both of them, there’s never any debating who the real star of the show is. Truth be told, “Say Nothing” has got too much of his DNA in the music to be anyone else’s.
There’s a lot more than meets the eye in the music video for this single, and much like its source material, I think you have to give it a couple of dedicated sit-downs to completely comprehend what the players are trying to get across to the audience here. It’s on the artsier side of the spectrum and definitely supported by a more progressive artistic whim than would have been acceptable a generation ago in this genre of music, but in my view, this is what’s going to bring Flume and May-A out of the underground and into an elite class in pop.
