Australian electro duo The Avalanches dropped their second album Wildflower in 2016, and so, by most yardsticks, the four-year wait for their newly released third album We Will Always Love You would be quite a long one. But when you consider that the group took sixteen years to release the follow up to their widely lauded debut Since I Left You, it becomes clear that they’re now positively motoring along, by their own standards.

All joking aside, both Since I Left You and Wildflower are undisputed classics, albums that mixed stunning samples with slick production and emotive electro sounds to create works that still stand up today. We Will Always Love You is no less ambitious: a 25-track, hour-plus behemoth packed to the limits with ideas and layers and collaborators and sheer magical musical invention.

The album opens with Ghost Story, a snippet of conversation detailing the pain of a long-distance relationship that quickly dissolves into the ethereal Song For Barbara Payton and the album’s title track, which is a triumphant mixture of spoken word and soaring vocals layered over a rich musical tapestry.

Elsewhere, The Divine Chord featuring MGMT and Johnny Marr is a twinkling, upbeat affair, Wherever You Go is utterly captivating and begins with a clip of NASA’s Golden Record, the message to other life forms that was carried aboard the Voyager spacecraft, and Running Red Lights is a straight-up joy. There are oddities too – Star Song.IMG is a ten-second flash of white noise while Pink Champagne is a similarly short little blast of strangeness.

It is an absolute feast of an album, and there’s almost too much to unpack into a single review. It’s the sort of record you want to climb inside and explore, and it’s one that rewards your efforts too, revealing a little bit more of its hoarded treasure with each listen. It’s safe to say that The Avalanches have found the winning formula once more.

We Will Always Love You tracklist:

1. Ghost Story

2. Song For Barbara Payton

3. We Will Always Love You

4. The Divine Chord

5. Solitary Ceremonies

6. Interstellar Love

7. Ghost Story Part 2

8. Reflecting Light

9. Carrier Waves

10. On The Sunn!

11. We Go On

12. Star Song

13. Until Daylight Comes

14. Wherever You Go

15. Music Makes Me High

16. Pink Champagne

17. Take Care In Your Dreaming

18. Overcome

19. Gold Sky

20. Always Black

21. Dial D For Devotion

22. Running Red Lights

23. Born To Lose

24. Music Is The Light

25. Weightless

Watch the official video for The Divine Chord here.

Author: Joe Sharratt

Joe Sharratt is a writer and journalist based in the UK covering music, literature, sport, and travel.