The Avalanches - We Will Always Love You (Album review)

Album review - 

Back at the start of the new millennia, Australian electronic group The Avalanches blessed the world with their outstanding debut album, Since I Left You. Famously made up entirely of samples, the album has gone on to become one of the most influential electronic albums of all time. The group then made us wait a whole 16 years for the follow up to Since I Left You, with the acclaimed album Wildflower. Thankfully we’ve only had to wait four more years for the next album. The newly released We Will Always Love You boasts 25 tracks across its 70 minute run time. The album is a blast of emotionally heavy songs exploring multiple genres and honestly, it’s pretty incredible how well this album fits together thematically considering how many different styles and genres are squeezed into it. WWALY has everything ranging from house, hip hop, soul, funk, psychedelia and disco.

WWALY conveys a really strong story despite having no narrative to the album in any way. It’s like the album is trying to show you the pain and hardships of losing someone and following your dreams. The story is told with the help with a huge collective of big name features popping up all over the record, such as, Jamie xx, MGMT, Neneh Cherry, Rivers Cuomo and Kurt Vile, but despite the star studded feature list, the album doesn’t feel cluttered or impersonal. The music and sound of WWALY is nostalgic, it sounds like you’re reliving your past experiences through rose tinted glasses. Not to imply that the whole album is some sad poem to times once been, there are plenty of more upbeat and optimistic tracks within it.

The Divine Chord, the fourth track on the record is the first example of a more upbeat and hopeful song, it’s a bouncier happier vibe even if there is still a hidden feeling of sad nostalgia tucked away beneath the surface. The vocals from MGMT work well in the mix sitting up top of some wonderful twinkly synths.

The track Reflecting Lights features some gorgeous piano but the vocals from featured artist Sananda Maitreya doesn’t really sit too well on top of the music, making the song feel a little hollow. The lyrics to this track also feel a little tacky and the song as a whole starts to get boring as it goes on.

WWALY then hits you with back to back bangers in the form of Oh The Sunn! and We Go On, with the first having a great funky bass line sitting underneath these ritualistic vocals that feel like some kind of worship or the summoning of an ancient deity. We Go On is a dancehall and disco hybrid with a brilliant feature from Cola Boy who brings some laid back but still enthusiastic vocals. Cola Boy sounds like he’s absolutely loving being on this song and the track really benefits from it.

Wherever You Go, the track that features both Jamie xx and Neneh Cherry is a decent enough song if not a little underwhelming. The song takes a little too long to get going but once it does you’re hit with a darker sounding house tune, the track hits a little more menacing than anything else on the album. Neneh Cherry’s feature on the song is kind of uninspiring, her vocals sound a little tacked on and make the song sound messier than it would have been without them. Wherever You Go has some great ideas but in terms of execution it is fairly flawed.

Denzel Curry and Sampha the Great are both at the top of their respective games with hard hitting verses on Take Care In Your Dreaming, a more hip hop focused track allowing these two artists to really go to town with a verse each and a soulful vocal refrain holding the song together and keeping the albums tone.

Gold Sky features an appearance from Kurt Vile, who lends his voice to a spoken word performance. This is a dreamy entrancing song, despite its morbid subject matter. Gold Sky has an ‘I’ve accepted I’m going down with the ship’ type feel. Kurt’s vocals feel exhausted and emotionless which conveys this strong feeling of melancholy and hopelessness. This track is definitely a hidden gem tucked away towards the end of the album, the kind of song that is likely to get overlooked due to its subtler feel.

WWALY is generally a pretty strong addition to The Avalanches sparse back catalogue; it isn’t without its issues though. Whilst the albums abundance of interludes admittedly does add to the overall atmosphere of the album, they definitely slow the album down a little too much at points. As well as this some of the albums features are fairly underwhelming and a few of the tracks are a bit of a mess.

Overall though WWALY is a great album, it’s a record that is ambitious in a more reserved way than the group’s previous efforts. It flows beautifully and would definitely be a better listen if you refrained from hitting the shuffle button and listened to the album how it was intended to be heard. WWALY is a highly emotional, genre hopping blast of imaginative pieces of music; it’s an album you know is going to stay with you, an album you won’t forget.

Best tracks – The Divine Chord, We Go On, Gold Sky, Running Red Lights, Oh The Sunn!

Worst tracks – Reflecting Light, Until Daylight Comes, Weightless

79/100