Summary:The third full-length release for the Australian electronic duo features guest appearances from such artist as Blood Orange, Leon Bridges, Vashti Bunyan, Neneh Cherry, Rivers Cuomo, Perry Farrell, Karen O, Jamie xx, Mick Jones, Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby),The third full-length release for the Australian electronic duo features guest appearances from such artist as Blood Orange, Leon Bridges, Vashti Bunyan, Neneh Cherry, Rivers Cuomo, Perry Farrell, Karen O, Jamie xx, Mick Jones, Sananda Maitreya (formerly known as Terence Trent D'Arby), Johnny Marr, MGMT, Oroño, Sampa the Great, Pink Siifu, Tricky, and Kurt Vile. …Expand
Buy Now
Buy on
Record Label:Astralwerks
Genre(s): Electronic, Alternative/Indie Rock, Club/Dance, Alternative Dance
We Will Always Love You, their third album, is just their latest achievement in flawlessness, a record that continues the sound that is undeniably The Avalanches.
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.
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.
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.
We Will Always Love You is less poignant when it's about "politicians calculated, in the tower insulated"—as Cherry raps on "Wherever You Go"—than when it's about that lonely signal bouncing around among the stars, anxious to reach a distant planet before its source self-destructs.
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
We Will Always Love You is a masterpiece. My worries for this album were instantly wiped when I heard it fully for the first time. It’s tight, while not feeling like it is. It uses less samples then their prior albums, but the samples are all used to their maximum potential. The singles made me think the samples weren’t going to work, and because this album only took them 4 years (a VERY short time compared to 16 years) I was expecting it to flop horribly and sound rushed and terrible. However, immediately I found the album to sound incredible. It immersed me in a world where I’m floating above all my problems, like I could reach up and touch the sky. It’s not comparable to Since I Left You, because of the completely different sound, but personally I think it’s on the same quality and is just as good. The Avalanches somehow make incredible music while constantly reinventing themselves.
Spoilers: The album is so much better if listened to all the way through, and The Avalanches keep the art that we’re starting to lose of full album listens a thing. No song in this album sounds like filler. If you’ve listened to Wildflower and Since I Left You, you probably think you could tell what samples could sound like, but the samples in this album are blended so well that I rarely realize they’re there. The main issue I will take from this album is one specific detail that may or may not ruin a song for you. Music Makes Me High has a high pitched tone in the beginning of the song.
I’m sure it has to do with the sample used in it, but my god couldn’t they just use an audio editor to change it? They’re The Avalanches man, they are incredible audio editors. Other than that, the song’s great, and the album is amazing. Just as good as Since I Left You (in my personal opinion).
Standout track: Oh the Sunn! (feat. Perry Farrell)
Least favorite: I don’t really hate any songs in this album, but Music Makes Me High only because of that high pitched noise which isn’t present anywhere else. Maybe they’re getting old and can’t hear high pitches anymore.
It's fifty years or more since the greatest rock albums were created. Blue, Hunky Dory, Maggot Brain, Deja Vu, Electric Ladyland, After theIt's fifty years or more since the greatest rock albums were created. Blue, Hunky Dory, Maggot Brain, Deja Vu, Electric Ladyland, After the Goldrush, Blond on Blond, ALL the Beatles albums, Led Zeppelin 1,2,3 and 4 were all in the can by then. This era generated works of unmatched creativity, with (then) new musical technologies and sincerity, even hopefulness.
But you can't live in the past. Music, and the technology involved in making it evolves. Even so rarely are modern works capable of holding a candle to the Boomers. Until now - We Will Always Love You is a musical tour de force, that speaks to the eternal, it is glorious, happy, and sounds like the best party you have never been to. Far from the lonely vigil of the typical singer-songwriter the creative process is energised, focused joy from a talented rabble who clearly loved every minute. Thematically, the fragility of the human spirit, life, love, dreams and our existence on this planet and in the universe are all brought together in a form that sounds important and epoch making, they will be playing this in 50 years time and people will wish they were young then, so they could have seen The Avalanches like people used to wish they were at Woodstock.…Expand
This review contains spoilers, click expand to view.
I don't know where to begin with this album. When the singles first dropped back in February and March, I wasn't as hyped as I was with Wildflower (Even though that album had its downs, I think it was still a really good album). When the second and third sets of singles dropped this summer, I was kind of getting an idea of the direction they were going, but I could not have ever expected this is how the completed project would turn out.
With the full album in my hands, the singles make a lot more sense now and I am able to appreciate them much more. They finally feel part of a whole, and not just a 3 mins song with random noises in them. With this album, they once again are able to capture some feeling, take you somewhere you never expected you could even go.
In my own opinion, the only place they kind of get scrambled up, like on Wildflower, is that the last couple tracks (Born To Lose, Music Is The Light), seem really isolated from the general mood of the album, featuring more electronic musicians as features.
The last track, while I was expecting it to be a full song (with a 3 mins run time) surprised me once I figured out what it actually was, and though it's not really music to listen to I feel like it seals the deal for this album pretty well, just like how Saturday Night Inside Out did. It kind of sums up what it's all about, and says good night.…Expand
The singles were definitely the high point for me. And that's rare as I tend to be a "deep cut" gal. I was SO looking forward to the KarenThe singles were definitely the high point for me. And that's rare as I tend to be a "deep cut" gal. I was SO looking forward to the Karen Carpenter sample and was stoked to see names like Karen O in the credits, but both seemed criminally underused... more of an afterthought than a feature. 25 songs is a bit bloated, though many of them are talking/short skits. Which was another drawback for me. There just wasn't a lot of 'oomph' or emotion at least in the first 1/3rd of the album. I was proper BORED until about track 8 or so. The tracklist seems like it was poorly ordered.
High points for me on first listen: Oh the Sunn!, Reflecting Light, Wherever You Go, We Will Always Love You, Always Black & Music Is the Light. They definitely chose the right songs for singles. Maybe I'm just spoiled after hearing their previous work (including the singles from this album, lol). I don't know what I was expecting but this album just felt a bit pretentious. (The last track "Weightless" is just 2:57 minutes of beeping!) It's absolutely gorgeous compared to 95% of today's popular fare; don't get me wrong. But by Avalanches standards it's not my favorite.…Expand
Published: December 24, 2020We reveal the 40 highest-scoring album releases of the year, as well as some of 2020's bests and worsts in other music categories.