After 16 years away, Melbourne crate-diggers the Avalanches return sounding, well, pretty much like they did before. The band are keen to point out that they have “moved on” sonically from their 2000 debut Since I Left You – and indeed, there are guest spots here for the likes of Danny Brown and Father John Misty. But the results are largely familiar: a surf through various sun-bleached genres that is by turns meditative, psychedelic and transcendent, while occasionally landing on a patience-testing novelty number. (Calypso-tinged comeback track Frank Sinatra was, mercifully, atypical, although other moments here might invite a similar urge in the listener to dismantle their stereo system with hammers.) Still, at its best, Wildflower is a joyous journey, from If I Was a Folkstar’s hippie reimagining of Daft Punk’s Face to Face to Sunshine’s heavenly orchestral soul. It’s testament to the power of their original vision that it all still sounds so fresh.
