The Avalanches – We Will Always Love You

Alternative – Released December 11, 2020 – 25 songs, 72 mins

ROZ’s album drop:

My 2021 album review pick is ‘We Will Always Love You’ by The Avalanches. I’ve honestly never listened to these guys before, until their MGMT collab popped up in my YouTube recommendations sometime in December. Looked them up and saw the words ‘Australian’ and ‘electronic music group’ and instantly knew I wanted to check their new album out, so I figured I’d start the new year off with it. It’s a long one (25 songs and goes over an hour) so I’m not gonna do my traditional song for song breakdown and don’t expect it back – gonna pick my favourites and my overall opinion and thoughts. Enjoy fellas! Fingers crossed this is a solid one.

REID

Had not even heard of The Avalanches before Roz dropped this last Friday. And boy am I happy with your choice bud. I friggin LOVE this album. I think all three of us have a huge appreciation for an album as a full body of work, as opposed to the picking and choosing of singles. This album really epitomizes that for me. I had a hard time choosing a favourite song because it’s a true 72-minute experience. For every Interstellar Love or Oh the Sunn! you have a Solitary Ceremonies or Carrier Waves preceding it setting the mood.

As Roz mentioned when dropping the album, a song by song breakdown wasn’t realistic for this one. So I started off the week by writing down songs that I liked. As the week progressed, the list grew. I’ll name a few of my favourites.

- The Divine Chord, Interstellar Love, Oh the Sunn!, We Go On, Wherever You Go (oh baby that 2:32 bass drop), the Overcome & Gold Sky back to back, Running Red Lights and Born to Lose

I know that isn’t exactly narrowing it down but I couldn’t leave any of them out. I could comment on them individually but I’d repeat myself. Just the overall feeling of this album, the mixes, the bass drops, the vocals fitting perfectly… it’s just so damn groovy. I have already downloaded Since I Left You and Wildflower by them. I’ll be listening to this one for a long time. Hoping their other releases are just as good.

Overall Rating – 9.0/10

Favourite Song – The Divine Chord/We Go On

ROZ

Being my first experience with The Avalanches, I didn't know what to expect going into this review. It began as a slow build up with the first few tracks feeling filler-like, which I chalked it up to the desired pacing of the album by the band. As the album went on, the songs picked up speed and increased in energy, and tracks started to seamlessly pour into each other; I began to understand that the "filler" tracks actually served their own purpose as transitions between ideas. 

The track listing was diverse, ranging from disco to hip-hop to straight up electronic experimental (Weightless practically being a singular, randomized synth note). At some point in the week I did a deep dive on the band and found out that they used hundreds and hundreds samples for this album, which I found extremely impressive. It really goes to show how much talent goes into collaboration pieces such as this - working with various artists yet still holding true to the vision you have, while finding the necessary means and creativity to express that vision.

Favorite songs & moments:

- Running Red Lights stood out as my favorite track on this album; a catchy tune that made me feel all fuzzy inside.

- Take Care In Your Dreaming - Denzel Curry's collaboration really lived up to the expectations I had for it.

- The Divine Chord and Music Makes Me High with their fantastic 70s disco goodness.

- Always Black - the vocals and piano in this track really stood out for me.

- We Go On and Wherever You Go had some deadly bass lines that really had me moving.

In an era where most artists seemingly attempt to fit a commercial cookie cutter mold I respected the albums experimentation, I was fascinated by its production value and ultimately I enjoyed the experience from start to finish.

Overall Rating – 8.0/10

Favourite Song – Running Red Lights

LUNDI

It’s a personal thing but I admit I was not even slightly excited about listening to this album. I have a hard time with albums that surpass an hour in total time. So (fuck you Roz hehe).

Going to switch up the review a bit. Here’s my play by play:

3 tracks in: my god, what is this. This next hour is going to suck 

Track 4: started dancing in my computer chair. Like this beat a lot. (Added to party playlist)

Track 5/6: I like Leon bridges but he sounds better with his own sound than he does here. Second 3 tracks are so much better. This might not be that bad. 

Track 7: ugh. Very R&B vibes. This ain’t for me. 

Track 8: haven’t liked an interlude since Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave. That still stands. 

Track 9: Perry Farrell eh. The Lollapalooza creator himself. Another cool upbeat song. 

Track 10: here we go (on). Just looked at the playlist and got anxiety for how many songs are left. So far thoughts are this is an album that would be cool molly tripping background music but don’t think I’d actively listen to this on my own. 

Track 11: insert alt j reference 

Track 12: insert alt j reference (kinda). Passsss

Track 13: *immediately gets Jamie XX vibes, checks song, ah yes Jamie XX* (In Colour is a cool album if you haven’t listened). This song is cool. I like it. Gets into the top 3 so far for me. Again sounds like cool molly music. 

Track 14: music does make me high. Looking back other than Jamie XX song I am liking the individual avalanches songs with no features so far. 

Track 15: zzzzzzzzzzz

Track 16: I’m white as can be. Give me sad songs. Rap rap rap. Sorry it’s probably good but I don’t have the ear for it. 

Track 17: I think I was writing an email. Went back and wasted two minutes of my life. 

Track 18: can’t believe even Kurt vile let me down. He could have done so much more with this imo. 

Track 19: nope. R&B rap shit again

Track 20: okay Karen O don’t let me down like Kurt. Fuck she’s also doing spoken word. Ah fuck it was an interlude. Insert alt-j

Track 21: will rivers cumou also let me down? Ahhhh he’s definitely the best of the 3 but that’s not saying much. Blah play island in the sun. 

Track 22: hey look another solo effort by the avalanches that isn’t bad at all. A trend for me for sure. 

Track 23-25: what the fuck were those?

That was hard. Looking at reviews online this has received some praise and probably viably so, I just can’t do it with longer albums filled with unnecessary shit. I wanted to like it but I just do not. I’ll give it some points for it’s molly vibes and few solo avalanches songs. 

Overall Rating – 3.0/10 (sorry to do it to you Roz, I wanted to like it I promise)

Favourite Song – The Divine Chord