Although the Avalanches don’t technically make concept albums, it’s fair to say that each of their records has its own loose thematic through-line: searching for love on the high seas on 2000’s Since I Left You; the psychedelic coming-of-age road trip of 2016’s Wildflower; and pondering both the cosmos and the afterlife throughout 2020’s We Will Always Love You.
No Bad Memories, the fourth Avalanches LP from Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi, who are joined here by new member Andy Szekeres, follows in the footsteps of its predecessors by building its own weird and wild little universe.
This time out, inspiration comes from the old storage devices that hold our precious memories, as well as the world of advertising — the slogans, the cheesy voiceovers, and the jingles that get stuck in your head.
All those things inform the multitude of short, glitchy, and somewhat overstimulating tracks that thematically thread the album together. Like most ads though, you’ll likely want to skip them so you can get to the main feature.
With that caveat out of the way, the main feature in question is yet another stellar set of Avalanches songs that lean heavily into dancefloor-friendly, freewheeling party vibes — a reflection, Chater says, of the happiness he felt when lockdowns ended.
As a result, No Bad Memories carries the recognisable spirit of Since I Left You, and in many ways, it sounds like a 21st century update of that certified classic. You’ll hear it in the always impeccable choice of samples, but mostly in its winning formula of two-thirds hands-in-the-air and one-third melancholy, all glued together with a restless creative zeal and a healthy serve of eccentricity.
Not many groups would think to use the sound of old hard drives on a rhythm track, but that’s exactly what the Avalanches do on “Together”, which samples its earworm hook from a song pulled from Seventies TV series The Famous Five — something only the Avalanches could dig up and spin into gold.
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“Every Single Weekend”, featuring Jamie xx (an earlier version of the song appears as an interlude on his 2024 album In Waves), is essentially “summertime chilling by the pool” in sonic form, an elite feel-good jam that is up there with the Avalanches’ best.
Although the group has a high hit rate when it comes to the bangers — other highlights include the ecstatic, horn-sampling “Vida” (featuring Erick the Architect) and Barry Can’t Swim collaboration “Magic Wand”, which sounds like a lost Since I Left You track — it’s often the melancholy songs that land the hardest.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, who both featured on We Will Always Love You, bring their A-game on “Blue Shadows” and “All the Time in the World”, respectively. Each track proves that the Avalanches truly excel at crafting sweet, sad songs that sound hopelessly romantic; “Blue Shadows” makes an easy case for being one of the best songs the group has ever made.
Then there’s the tracks that masterfully blend both joy and sorrow into a niche genre you could rightfully call “sad at the party”. The majestic and moving “Can’t Get Over Losing You”, featuring Portraits of Tracy, is a perfect example; “Far Away”, featuring John Glacier and Khadija Al Hanafi, is another.
As should be obvious by now, the album is absolutely stacked with guests; crucially, each one serves the music, and it never feels like stunt casting.
There are almost more surprise appearances (hello, Haley Joel Osment from the Sixth Sense) and killer samples (hello, Carly Simon on “One More Fantasy”) than one album can take, but — those glitchy interludes aside — it never feels like too much.
Instead, it’s a brilliant blend of taking the best from the past while still exploring new territory, resulting in an album that can proudly sit alongside the other gems in the Avalanches’ consistently excellent discography.
