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Jul 7, 2016The wonderful Wildflower is cause for celebration, its Zappa/Beasties-style collage of voices, samples, beats, sounds, and especially laughter offering a joyous affirmation of life.
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Jul 11, 2016Is Wildflower the best album of the year? Probably not. But it was made by one of the most influential artists of our generation. Take note.
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MagnetAug 11, 2016The Avalanches bag production, they roller-coaster; got to be jokers, they just do what they please. [No. 134, p.51]
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UncutAug 5, 2016Wildflower does a robust job of reiterating core skills rather than offering radical reinvention. [Sep 2016, p.66]
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Jul 13, 2016As with their debut, the exquisitely painstaking craftsmanship, the overriding sense joy and wonder, the ears wide open to an infinite universe of sonic possibility are all there. It sounds like the Avalanches, and nothing else does.
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Jul 8, 2016The Avalanches are all about feel. And Wildflower, though it misses some of its predecessor’s thematic unity and from-nowhere sense of surprise, has that feel in spades.
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Jul 5, 2016It’s The Avalanches’ efforts that make this album, although the deeper forays into hip-hop on "Because I’m Me", "The Noisy Eater" and even the poorly-received comeback "Frankie Sinatra"--much stronger in context--lend a nice variety and harder edge.
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Jul 8, 2016Wildflower may not inspire the same years of obsessive unpacking as its predecessor, but the joyful feelings it leaves behind linger just the same.
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Jul 6, 2016Wildflower comes out swinging.
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Jul 8, 2016It took a childhood-and-a-half to come to fruition, but Wildflower is another album that snatches elements from the past but sounds like the future.
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Aug 10, 2016Wildflower is simply a joy, an euphonious hour-long journey that exists in some wonderfully naive and blissful alternate universe. It’s an aural paradise you’ll never want to leave.
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MojoJul 27, 2016Wildflower can either be enjoyed as a horizon-filling album-long trip, or by zooming in on the array of every changing, intra-song moments, as sounds and ideas flit in and out of focus. Whatever your preference, it was worth the wait. [Sep 2016, p.92]
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Jul 21, 2016Wildflower proves the group hasn’t lost what made them special, and with any luck, that next disc will be showing up in a time period that’s no longer than, say, a decade.
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Jul 20, 2016At worst the album gets a bit too cutesy (lead single Frankie Sinatra), but its unrelentingly cheery harmonies and melodies are so effervescent that it practically makes the air sparkle.
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Jul 12, 2016While Wildflower comprises many, many elements, ultimately, it's a testament to the craft and time it takes to build such a seamless and joyful record.
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Jul 12, 2016Wildflower might not be perfect, but it is gorgeous, heartwarming and fun. Its upbeat outlook is infectious and sure to be the soundtrack to many summers to come.
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Jul 11, 2016While the days of heavily sampled music seemed dead and gone forever, the Avalanches have somehow managed to pull off an album that's as much a mastery of red tape as it is of musical prowess.
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Jul 11, 2016A pastoral, wistful brand of psychedelia holds sway throughout this absorbing record.
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Jul 11, 2016This album tells a deeper story that only grows more vibrant with every listen.
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Jul 8, 2016Multiple minute-long interludes flesh Wildflower out, feeling like breaks to an all-out, never-ending stage show. It needed to take something substantial to feel satisfied after those sixteen long years, and The Avalanches have gone beyond their calling.
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Jul 7, 2016It’s testament to the power of their original vision that it all still sounds so fresh.
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Jul 7, 2016Wildflower is a shaggy document, to be sure. Not everything’s a stunner like “Because I’m Me” or “Harmony”--sometimes there’s moldering AM Gold like “Light Up.” But now it’s not about the journey into paradise, more like a rush to the finish line. They’re out of time, but they still made it.
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Jul 6, 2016For those fascinated by the Avalanches's process, as opposed to merely impressed by its most endearing results, Wildflower is a rewarding and challenging listen.
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Jul 5, 2016Far from being frozen in time, Wildflower shows a willingness to move forward with a sense of personal history, but unhindered by obligations to it.
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Jul 5, 2016Even if it could never feel like a childhood's worth of lovingly curated music, and even if the shock of the new's way out of its reach, it's still another out-of-its-time, forensically assembled wonder.
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Q MagazineJul 1, 2016The whole album flows like a rainbow-hued river animated by the spirit of generosity and wonder. [Aug 2016, p.116]
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Jul 18, 2016Daydreams don't get much more vivid than the Avalanches iconic debut album, but Wildflower is a worthy--if not quite as revelatory--sequel.
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Jul 8, 2016What still sets the Avalanches apart, besides their careful groove pacing, attention to detail, and uncanny ability to move you from inside a track to outside looking in, is their sweet sense of nostalgia.
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Jul 7, 2016By focusing on outsiders instead of trusting their crate-digging genius, the Avalanches shortchanged themselves and ended up making the best psychedelic Chemical Brothers album ever instead of making another classic Avalanches album.
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Jul 7, 2016Wildflower isn’t going to shift any paradigms, and it’s not going to leave the same impression on the world that Since I Left You did all those years ago, but none of that makes it any less of a delight to listen to.
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Jul 15, 2016After the lengthy wait, at over 20 tracks and about an hour long, Wildflower doesn’t skimp on quantity even if it does resemble a pent-up outpouring of everything The Avalanches have completed (or at least legally cleared), rather than a meticulously curated collection.
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Jul 1, 2016At 20 tracks long, however, it takes some serious listening to get through the whole thing, and a sense of sag in the latter third threatens to overpower on the first few spins. Essentially, this flower could've used a little more judicious pruning.
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Jul 1, 2016There are far too many children’s voices, snatches of birdsong, glissandi of saccharine strings, and always the half-heard, half-sensed thwack of Frisbee upon social media manager.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 120 out of 136
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Mixed: 5 out of 136
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Negative: 11 out of 136
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Jul 5, 2016
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Jul 19, 2016
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Jul 5, 2016