A to Z
THE AVALANCHES
We Will Always Love You UNIVERSAL
8/10
Adventuresome third bursting with energy and wonder. By Erin Osmon
IF, after suffering hardship, you’ve become particularly attuned to the everyday miracles of earth and sky, awed by the wonder of existence, then you’re already intimate with the hopeful air of We Will Always Love You.
Drenched in mechanised shimmer and kinetic beats, The Avalanches’ third studio effort is at its core a beatific vision born of life’s darker turns, that neither weaponises nor romanticises pain. Instead, We Will Always Love You recognises the arc of pain as one of humanity’s strongest connective tissues, an acknowledgement that doubles as an exorcism, a non-verbal expression that intones, “I feel you, pain, and now I am setting you free.”
Fitting neatly at the junction between curiosity and maturity, the record may disappoint those fans with a particular long-simmering and perhaps unfair desire; it is not the anarchic and astonishing Frankenstein’s monster that was 2000’s Since I Left You or, to a lesser extent, 2016’s Wildflower, not an infinitely layered statement with WhoSampled pages that unravel like Kerouac’s On The Road scroll. It is more pop-oriented and far less mysterious. It is the sound of a group who want more from life than the fetishisation of dusty discs.
Though it retains the same deconstructionist form that made The Avalanches a household name, it does so through a reliance on original collaborations with guest vocalists that are then chopped, refracted and stitched with samples of cult records, obscure historical recordings, warbled YouTube clips and alien frequencies. It’s a less intensive template than Since I Left You, one that fulfils a few practical purposes: less time spent digging and chasing sample clearance, and core members Robbie Chater and Tony Di Blasi’s desire to work in a more standard album-tour cycle, one that doesn’t prompt a 16-year absence between records. In keeping with their liking for concept albums, they’ve crafted a record loosely based on the relationship between ‘science communicators’ Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan, and their ‘love note’ on Voyager’s Golden Record.
Druyan’s face appears on the cover, and she was originally planned to appear on the album; though it didn’t happen, the record is certainly not short of other contributors. While it’s fair to see names like Perry Farrell and Rivers Cuomo and be suspicious, the beauty of We Will Always Love You lies beneath the elder statesmen on the shiny hype sticker. It is here that Karen O whispers some of the last and most profound words written by David Berman, over the crackle of static and a light twinkle of piano (“Pink Champagne”). It is here that pop luminary Dev Hynes meets folk luminaries The Roches and soul legend Smokey Robinson in an elegiac symphony built for headphones (“We Will Always Love You”). It is here that Johnny Marr’s guitar again shimmers with a Smiths-era glimmer (“The Divine Chord”), and a crack modern soul upstart, Cola Boyy, is bolstered by none other than OG sampler Mick Jones (“We Go On”). It is here that a sample of Vashti Bunyan, taken from 1970’s “Glow Worms”, flutters on a wave of psychedelic soul (“Reflecting Light”).
A necessary treat amid a turbulent, uncertain climate
Though sonically We Will Always Love You is unlike the group’s first two albums, its spirit of discovery, and subtle championing of the oblique, forgotten and underrepresented, is familiar territory. The album is neither stuck in the past nor barrelling recklessly towards the future, and, in this sense, it’s a lavish genre-agnostic mixtape. On paper it lacks focus, but in practice it is representative of the aural quilts crafted by modern, omnivorous listeners. Anti-pop sentiment has largely fallen out of vogue among serious music heads, and The Avalanches have long advocated for such progress.
Through its adventuresome twists and well-considered combinations, this record acts as a necessary treat amid a turbulent and uncertain climate; it embraces the promise of love, the wonder of outer realms and the connective quality of music across genres and understanding. A reminder of the energy of bodies at one with a beat, and the soothing quality of a quiet hour alone with one’s thoughts, it’s a hopeful guide to a world where everyone is welcome.
ACE OF CUPS
Sing Your Dreams HIGH MOON
7/10
Jackson Browne and Wavy Gravy guest on second return of fabled San Francisco band
As a pioneering all-female group who played with Hendrix and the heroes of Haight-Asbury but didn’t record an album until their own golden years, Ace Of Cups are a Cameron Crowe movie waiting to happen. With their second album after 2018’s very belated self-titled debut, they’ve also become an ongoing concern. The bluesy, patchouli-scented boogie of “Jai Ma” and “Little White Lies” is amiable enough, but Sing Your Dreams benefits most from the quicker pace and harder crunch in the rallying cry “Put A Woman In Charge” and “Boy, What You’ll Do Then”, a punchy garage rocker that guitarist Denise Kaufman initially cut as a pre-Ace of Cups single in 1966 and has been coveted by cratediggers ever since. JASONANDERSON
TAMAR APHEK
All Bets Are Off KILL ROCK STARS
8/10
Israeli singer and guitarist’s Bad Seeds-inspired gothic funk rock
After fronting several Tel Aviv bands, Tamar Aphek decamped to the New York studio of the garage-funk label Daptone Records to record this powerful solo debut. She sings in a Nico-ish contralto, plays wayward psychedelic guitar solos, and writes simple songs that are transformed by the remarkable interplay she has with her band, particularly drummer Yuval Garin. On the two-chord waltz “Too Much Information”, Garin sounds like Buddy Rich stumbling into a garage-rock session; “Nothing Can Surprise Me” sees him playing an Afro-Latin barrage; while “Crossbow” is a terrific piece of motorik funk powered by a pulsating one-note bassline from Uri Kutner. JOHN LEWIS
BARRY GIBB
Greenfields: The Gibb Brothers Songbook, Vol 1 CAPITOL
8/10
Surviving sibling sets the controls for the soul of country.
By Terry Staunton
IT wasn’t until 25 years after its release, and subsequent worldwide sales in excess of five million, that the writers of “Islands In The Stream” revealed that the song was originally written with Marvin Gaye in mind. Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton ultimately gave the Gibb brothers’ their biggest country-related success, but the track’s origins are evidence of the form’s parallels with soul.
There’s further, irrefutable proof of that in the selections from the Bee Gees’ back catalogue that are now gracing Barry Gibb’s elegant duets project. Though fashioned in Nashville with the assistance of some the city’s finest musicians and a sprinkling of the genre’s most bankable marquee names, its contents are more widely evocative of the personality of the South.
Case in point is the slightly slowed-down tempo of “Jive Talkin’”, on which Miranda Lambert’s slinky drawl resonates with the Gothic sass of Bobbie Gentry over a loose Muscle Shoals groove. It’s there again in the gospel-flavoured yearning of Sheryl Crow on “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart”, and
