We Will Always Love You

Australian duo The Avalanches' 3rd album We Will Always Love You released in December 2020.
It was recorded throughout 2017 till early 2020 at Sing Sing in Melbourne.

After the group released their predecessor "Wildflower" in 2016, the group went on tour during 2017. However, Robbie Chater (one half of the duo) left to recover from alcohol addiction.
They began to work on this album after the tour ended.

Unlike the duo's last two albums, it's less of a plunderphonics project and more focused on a psychedelia / pop direction, which I love the sound of.
It does, however, manage to maintain the sample-built structure of the previous albums while also including instrumentation to build arohnd the sounds they wanted to achieve.

Now, I want to say I know this wasn't gonna top Since I Left You since that's my 2nd favourite album of all time, but that's not to say We Will Always Love You is bad because it's still a great piece of work.

The sampling is put to great use when it's present, especially due to the concept being centered around "death, the afterlife amd everything that's out there" due to the sampling of music from artists who have died.

The production is insanely energetic and filled with constant vibes. It can be a psychedelic dream at one point, next it could be a dark & bouncy dance track that screams nightclub material.

It's quite strange at first to see this being more vocal-centered than their other albums (still have yet to hear Wildflower btw) but Chater and Di Blasi got a great ensemble of features who merge greatly with their style.
This includes the likes of MGMT, Blood Orange, Denzel Curry, Jamie xx, Tricky, Kurt Vile & Neneh Cherry.

25 tracks might seem like overstuffed filler to some, but I can say it hardly ever feels overlong and it's quite a fun listen to engage with.

We Will Always Love You may be a little overlong at 71mins, but it's not much of a detractor to say that The Avalanches' music is an experience that must be had at some point in your life.