The Singles Jukebox

If you’re reading this in 2100, we doubt this’ll help you decipher the headline “Diplo Calls Zedd a Flume Rip-Off Over M&Ms Song,” but at least the song’s nice…

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[6.67]

Crystal Leww: This is a big track for Flume, but it’s a huge deal for Kai. Her story is great — she’s been a dance music vocalist since 2012, first appearing on an Adventure Club song, then doing vocals on the underrated banger “Revolution,” teaming up with Skrillex and Diplo again on “Mind,” and finally hitting Australian #1 with the critical-darling and festival-beloved Flume on “Never Be Like You.” I am a known dance vocalist stan, and Kai is one of the best. All of the songs she’s been on have been elevated by her presence, and while I usually find producers separate out her vocals from the big drops or let them drown her out, “Never Be Like You” allows Kai to coast on those big warbles in the chorus. Still, the most intriguing part of this are the verses, which Flume wisely keeps fairly minimal. I love the way that these lyrics are phrased, so dramatically: “allegiance to the pain,” “this fickle-minded heart that loves fake shiny things,” “hate sleeping on my own, missing the way you taste.” Kai makes her self-sabotage feel like the end of the world, and Flume’s production is more ambiance and percussion punctuating what she’s done.
[9]

Juana Giaimo: “Never Be Liked You” seems to have written much after the trouble happened, because Kai’s voice is calm in the verses as she revisits her mistakes and accepts the guilt. It would be boring if it wasn’t for the chorus, which brings the mess she actually is to the front. Suddenly, as the electronics get chopped up, all her rational arguments are replaced by a rather superficial line: “He’ll never be like you!”
[7]

Katherine St Asaph: Another song of performative humiliation — leaning into the old misogynist accusations, those fickle hearts that love fake shiny things, and breathlessly pleading oneself into dissolution — but one Kai absolutely sells, and that seems sincere. In the abstract I should hate this theme being so ubiquitous — “Never Be Like You” right after “In the Morning” is some bleak gender juxtaposition — but I have no problem with Everything But The Girl’s “Wrong” and a hell of a lot of personal use, and I don’t doubt listeners will use this likewise. Flume sets the scene at a winter-break pep rally, the fast-edit, falling-apart dreamlike version of one, which spikes the already-heightened emotions.
[7]

Alfred Soto: The high tremulous vocal over even more nervous synth horns adduces the title’s anxiety, but why does this sound like bedsit melancholy pretending to be dance?
[5]

Micha Cavaseno: It’s basically any generic pop ballad, but with decently thudding drums and someone playing ON/OFF/ON/OFF with the volume knob again and again. As someone who used to do that on a whim as a kid and wonders why that never became a field of interest for music weirdos besides vaporwave/nightcore is beyond me. All the same, not much to offer beyond the usual.
[4]

Brad Shoup: Flume tosses wubbering “My Love” synths in Kai’s path, just to watch her overcome. She’s remarkably deft. There’s a blitheness to her apology that makes you think she knows the game’s rigged. The right words are right because they buy you time.
[8]