We Will Always Love You

Reflective, immersive and, in a more subtle way, euphoric, this is the record to put the art into The Avalanches’ party.

Because it's not composed of hundreds to thousands of samples like the others, each piece has to stand out on its own. The elements are no less meaningful, just larger. It takes a skilled hand to make any mosaic, whether you're working with large tiles or tiny pieces of paper.

Their melodic sensibilities have translated remarkably well to more traditional songwriting. ... Most importantly, despite the complexity of the production, like its predecessors this album flows with a remarkable sense of fluidity and fun — it doesn’t sound labored-over, even though it obviously was. ... Twenty-plus years and three albums into their career, “We Will Always Love You” opens up a whole new chapter for the Avalanches.

It’s an album that’s somehow halfway between DJ mix and a greatest hits compilation, and arguably the best of The Avalanches’ trio of releases thus far.

These songs are more akin to paintings: Samples comprise skeletal underpaintings to which mind-bending Moog passages and the human voice give shape, texture, and weight. This time around, things are more akin to Tame Impala’s Currents, than the Beastie Boys’s Paul’s Boutique, though “Take Care in Your Dreaming,” one of the album’s few hip-hop-inflected cuts, is especially mesmerizing.

Half the 25 tracks sound great on their own, the rest connecting into something different and no less impressive. There’s a real genius in crafting something that has the same impact in four-minute slices as it does strung out into an hour plus experience. Yet that’s exactly what’s going on here.

Altogether this album feels like its own artifact in the making, ready to haunt listeners and filter its Morse code and snapshot stories through their speakers for years to come.

We Will Always Love You overflows with heart, enough that it buoys even the top-heavy moments, and the bittersweet mix of emotions feels remarkably appropriate for the current moment.

We Will Always Love You is an impressive mediation on everything that matters, and of letting go of what doesn’t.

This never feels thrown-together, which is some achievement. Instead, the album feels like one to spend ample amounts of time with as you travel its far-flung corners as it reaches for the stars. [Feb 2021, p.84]

We Will Always Love You is an emotional rollercoaster, and a lovingly put-together tapestry that signals The Avalanches entering the 2020s as vibrant as ever.

Through its adventuresome twists and well-considered combinations, this record acts a a necessary treat amid a turbulent and uncertain climate. [Feb 2021, p.22]

There’s much to discover here, making it an immersive and rewarding album to go back to again and again.

The sheer breadth of talent that Robert Chater and Tony Di Blasi have assembled is dizzying, their collaborators as imaginatively selected as their samples.

Yet another emotional roller coaster, this is the Avalanches' longest one yet.

It is a dream of an album. I’m just not sure it will make any sense when you wake up.

The diversity of guest musicians, expertly woven music and compositional strength of the tracks on offer here add up to a journey well worth taking. ‘We Will Always Love You’ completes The Avalanches’ 20-year triptych on a hopeful note.

The band’s trademark sampledelic sound provides a tasteful glimpse of the familiar, while also sidestepping overt pastiche, remaining consistently fresh throughout.

This time, they go lighter on the samples and heavier on post-trip hop soundscapes and contemporary singers, making for recombinant pop that feels joyfully seamless and organic.

The LP is woven with otherworldly, alien sounds, yet there is an undeniable coziness to the songs—thanks in part to the cozy crackle of vinyl samples and stirring vocals—that combats the coldness often associated with outer space.

It’s an electronic album from DJs who love to sample the music that inspires them, and in the past they’ve successfully done, furnishing us with some of the most golden-crisped memories. With some trimming, We Will Always Love You might have been a victory lap, but instead it feels like The Avalanches would have been better off taking another decade to fine-tune it.