Good things come to those who wait, and we’ve been waiting for this one for sixteen bloody years. The Avalanches are finally properly back with new music and that much anticipated second album.
The follow-up to ‘Since I Left You’ is titled ‘Wildflower’, and is set for release on July 8th via Astralwerks/Modular/EMI/XL. Crafted by the band’s core duo – Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi – a press release goes as far to describe it as “like The Beach Boys’ Smile re-imagined in the Daisy Age: a mind-bending cartoon road movie that’s best viewed with closed eyes and an open mind.”
No pressure there, then.
The 21 track release features appearances from Father John Misty, Toro Y Moi, MF Doom, Danny Brown, Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux, Camp Lo, Biz Markie, Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donahue, and Warren Ellis of the Bad Seeds/Dirty Three. In an interview with Zane Lowe, it was revealed that collaborations with Jens Lekman and Connan Mockasin didn’t make the final cut.
The album is preceded by a new track, ‘Frankie Sinatra’, featuring MF Doom and Danny Brown, and comes with a video you can check out below.
“What kept us going during the making this record was a belief in the day-to-day experience of music as a life force – as life energy,” says The Avalanches’ Robbie Chater. “Hearing a certain song on a certain morning can change your day; it can make the world look different, changing the way you perceive light refracting through the atmosphere for the rest of the afternoon. Literally changing the color and feeling-tone of your world.”
So, there we have it. June 2nd. The day when The Avalanches put out new music, and literally anything became possible.
— The Avalanches (@TheAvalanches) June 2, 2016
Wildflower tracklisting:
01 The Leaves Were Falling
02 Because I’m Me
03 Frankie Sinatra
04 Subways
05 Going Home
06 If I Was a Folkstar
07 Colours
08 Zap!
09 The Noisy Eater
10 Wildflower
11 Harmony
12 Live a Lifetime Love
13 Park Music
14 Livin’ Underwater (Is Somethin’ Wild)
15 The Wozard of Iz
16 Over the Turnstiles
17 Sunshine
18 Light Up
19 Kaleidoscopic Lovers
20 Stepkids
21 Saturday Night Inside Out
22 Frankie Sinatra (Extended Mix)