Flying Lotus, Flamagra, Album Review
Flying Lotus
Flamagra
Album Review
The sixth and latest studio album from experimental producer Steven Ellison (known in this context as his stage name, Flying Lotus), Flamagra is also the first album of his that I've fully listened to.
Before 2019, I knew a little about FlyLo and the music he created. I also heard a lot of praised aimed at his previous album, 2014's You're Dead!. Around half a decade later, this newest record was teased with a video which showcased the first segment of one of the soon-to-be tracks on Flamagra, "Fire Is Coming". This track featured an eerie spoken word piece from David Lynch of all people and given the title of the track, it seemed to be a promotional representation of the album in full.
I wasn't completely sold on the album at this point, as "Fire Is Coming" wasn't an awful lot to go off on in terms of how the album would sound musically. What did change my mind, however, was one of the teaser tracks that followed this. Titled "More", this track featured Anderson .Paak, so you might be able to see why I was interested in this track. That factor aside, FlyLo's input n the track came through very clearly, and his productional wizardly allowed the track to have a much quirkier and astronomic atmosphere than your bog standard .Paak song.
Despite my love for this track, which furthermore boosted my excitement for the album, there was one looming worry I had towards Flamagra; I had a gut feeling that this album could potentially be oversaturated and fans might be greeted with an overwhelming amount of music, which could only mean there would inevitably be a few floaters in the water.
Unfortunately, this prediction turned out to be true, and then some. Despite my initial prediction that this album would have considerably more tracks than your average album, I was still surprised to find that this album carries a total of 27 tracks! And with a duration of almost 70 minutes, It also proved to be quite the lengthy listen.
Now I'm the kind of person that listen to a full album once, and then sifts through the album again, only keeping the tracks I connected to or found enjoyable. After committing to this exercise, I was left with only 9 songs out of 27, which adds up to just a third of the whole album.
And the best reason I can think of as to why would have to be that nearly all of the tracks without featured vocals just feel quite lifeless to the point where I would pass them off as interludes if they were on nearly any other record. Almost all of the songs I kept had somebody singing or rapping over FlyLo's production. And in my mind, that just made each of them sound a tonne more complete. There is a lot of ambience in the solely musical tracks, with some such as "Post Requisite" and "Andromeda" even being enjoyable. But the amount of tracks that missed the mark are almost too plentiful to count.
With that remark aside, The tracks that I do love include guest features from George Clinton, Little Dragon, Denzel Curry, Thundercat, Solange and many more. In the features department, this album almost rivals the likes of the Gorillaz records.
A couple of examples of good tracks are "Burning Down The House", which genuinely felt like the second coming of Kendrick Lamar's "Wesley's Theory" with its wavy guitar sound and the vocals of George Clinton. Also "The Climb", which is a soulful and lax tune that eventually progresses into something with a lot more grandeur. And with the vocals of Thundercat, it is sure to soothe.
Long story short, the tracks on this album that are enjoyable are incredibly so. But I am still left wishing they would be scattered more generously across Flamagra.
Despite its lengthy runtime and rarity of incredible songs, this album is still nothing short of a creative, indulgent and extensive experience that really does the artists lending their talents a great deal of justice.
Thank You for Reading
Booth Boy
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