Without overstating the case, when the Avalanches’ debut album “Since I Lost You” arrived out of a clear blue sky (to anyone outside of their native Australia, anyway) in 2000, its impact was like the arrival of the Beastie Boys’ “Paul’s Boutique” eleven years earlier: a mind-melting leap forward in the art of sampling, a sprawling and densely textured opus created from a reported 3,500 samples (and no live instrumentation) ranging from Madonna’s “Borderline” to old soul songs to deeply obscure tracks, along with snippets of commercials, film scores, movie or tv dialogue (particularly the “That boy needs therapy” line in “Frontier Psychiatrist”) and heaven knows what else.
It sounds chaotic and sometimes it was — at times feeling like both of your neighbors are having raging dance parties at the same time — but for all the PhD-level crate-digging, DJ acrobatics and plunderphonic science, what really set it apart was the songcraft and joyful, distinctive sense of melody.
It was a tough act to follow, and some 15 years passed before the group re-emerged (as a duo) in 2016 with the equally sprawling but more song-based “Wildflower” and, just five years later, “We Will Always Love You,” both of which found the group using a wild array of guest vocalists, from Biz Markie to Karen O, Danny Brown to the Clash’s Mick Jones, and others. The sampling and sound bites are just as impressive but function more in service of the songs than as foreground.
The group’s new album, “No Bad Memories” continues in that vein, with another raft of impressive guests — veterans like Jamie XX, Panda Bear, Karen O, Faith No More’s Mike Patton and even Carly Simon along with relative newcomers Portraits of Tracy, John Glacier, Barry Can’t Swim and others — and some of their best songwriting to date. With some 31 tracks sprawled across nearly an hour, it’s hard to pick individual highlights but they include the lead singles “Together” and “Every Single Weekend,” as well as the Loaded Honey-featuring “Final Credits” (which sounds amazingly like an early ‘70s soul record) and especially “One More Fantasy,” which pairs a Kraftwerkian loop with a soaring melody and high vocal from Carly Simon — it’s over much too soon.
There’s a recurring theme throughout of what sound like ‘90s and ‘00s videogame and technology sounds and advertising snippets (the cover features an iPod and a floppy disc, with arms and legs natch, standing next to each other); if they could have figured out a way to make “Clippy,” the old paper clip-shaped Microsoft virtual assistant, make a guest appearance, they probably would have.
But most of all, it’s one of the happiest-sounding albums you’ll hear all year — the Avalanches have a way with effervescent melodies and sounds, and combined with the energetic beats and humorous sound bites, the fittingly titled “No Bad Memories” will light up any room it’s in.