In the Randomised Record series, I take us both on an adventure to (re)discover my record collection. Fate decides: whether it be that obscure grunge album I bought recently or that emo rap record from 2017. Nothing is safe from the hands of the randomiser! I will listen to the entire album and highlight my favourite song off of it here on the blog. Do I still enjoy my records as much as when I bought ‘em? Let’s find out. Today, episode 15: ‘come out. you’re hiding’ (2017) by flor.

Well, here’s one I’d fully forgotten about. This takes me right back into time, about 8 years to be precise. Chances are likely you have forgotten about this band, if not never heard of ‘em at all. flor (formerly known as Sunderland) is an American indie pop band, creating a very safe and approachable kind of dreamy teens indie. Album ‘come out. you’re hiding’ got released on the renowned Fueled By Ramen, a label with an emo roster to dream of: Paramore, Panic! At The Disco, Fall Out Boy. All bands who’ve released music on the Warner subsidiary. flor’s lighthearted indie pop seems to be a bit of an outlier on the usually more rock-focused Fueled By Ramen, but the label was right in signing this group. Its target audience (AKA teenage me) sucked it right up.

A burning summer sun in a village near the middle of The Netherlands. Me and my then girlfriend skating across the fields with my iPod blasting out tunes by bands like Silent Crowd, Last Dinosaurs, Satellite Stories, and Twenty One Pilots. And flor. That’s all I think of while listening to ‘come out. you’re hiding’. This album turns out to be a humongous throwback for me. I almost forgot about that time I went to a WALK THE MOON gig only because flor was playing their support slot. Wow! Honestly, I haven’t listened to this stuff in years and I reckon if I would’ve stumbled upon this album in a record store nowadays, I would’ve must likely forgotten that I already own it. Songs like ‘warm blood,’ ‘heart’, and ‘where do you go’ come straight out of the times I was still blogging on De Spotlight, my former website where I first learned of this band back in March of 2017. Together with Kid Zr0 and Psychedelic Porn Crumpets, flor starred in the 22nd episode of my then weekly segment ‘Vers Gespot’ in which I highlighted up and coming bands and artists.

Honestly, it’s the first time during this series I’m quite a bit blown away by surprise. Of course, it doesn’t quite carry the same emotional load for you the reader as it does for me the author but since I (apparently) have many memories attached to this record, I can safely say that this came pretty out of the blue for me. As surprising as it isn’t, I still know many of the words to this album and even though 2017 is only 8 years ago, it feels like a lifetime since I first took a liking to this album. The songs on this record certainly sound like they’re taken straight from the ‘How to make 10s Indie’-guidebook, although that doesn’t take anything away from the fact that they still make for a great summer soundtrack. The vast majority of the songs on this album call for a summer stroll, a picknick in the sun or just happy vibes on the beach with a cocktail. For me, it will probably always remind me of my late teens. That might perhaps not sound all too exciting but it certainly shows me how much I’ve changed as a person over the years. Being 28 years of age now, 8 years is quite a large chunk of time for me and I wonder if flor-loving me ever thought I would be where I am now. Where does the time go, aye?

To preserve the memories I have to the most well-known songs on this album, I would like to highlight one that doesn’t quite hold as much weight. ‘no more time’ is the penultimate track on ‘come out. you’re hiding’ and certainly isn’t as iconic for me as some of the aforementioned songs but still represents flor’s sound very well, as well as the feeling it gave me back in 2017. Glad I’ve listened to this album again.