Track-By-Track: Is The Avalanches' 'Wildflower' Worth The 16-Year Wait?

A friend’s dad once said the The Avalanches sound like radio station surfing. Will Since I Left You’s 16-years-in-the-making follow-up Wildflower follow suit? Most tracks flow seamlessly, one into the next. Some are so short in length they fly by undetected.

Here’s how Bryget Chrisfield heard the stream. In real time. 

1. the leaves were falling — 0.15

Starts off sounding like a bunch of friends talking and laughing over a track that’s playing out in the background.

2. because i'm me — 4.12

Motown-esque, Michael Jackson-sounding soul vocal. Then in comes some fresh flow.

3. frankie sinatra — 3.44

There’s something QOTSA Feel Good Hit Of The Summer about this one (maybe it’s just the constant drug references). The video is so great that we play it out in our minds every time we hear this song, which makes it even better. The “I’m so high/You’re so high/If I take another sniff then I just might die,” bit channels what could be a homeless Eminem alter ego based in Bourbon Street. It really doesn’t need that The Sound Of Musicsample – they’re just showing off.

4. subways — 3.10

Sunshine shines into Subways via female vocals and this song is probably way more impressive to those who haven’t heard Chandra's Subways and/or Warm Ride by Bee Gees.

5. going home — 2.06

“Let the song get out of hand,” and repeated requests to, “Dance the pain away,” fade out into a recorded phone call.

6. if i was a folkstar — 4.33

Sounds like Sonic The Hedgehog is obtaining some rings! Radio DJ announcements, traffic noise, bass grooves, simple keys and a screeching cat.  

7. colours — 3.32

Sounds like a scene from The Muppets or Sesame Street demonstrating the power of colours to kids as written by trippers. “Where do all the mermaids go?”   

8. zap! — 1.58

Harmonica and bird sounds. A meditation for munters. An interlude.

9. the noisy eater — 3.14

Kids are gonna love this one! Orchestral flourishes, cartoonish vocals, Cookie Monster-style chomps and slurps. “Ethereal cereal” indeed – this one calls to mind Superfast Jellyfish by Gorillaz.

10. wildflower — 1.14

Is that the sound of a lighter lighting then an inhale and exhale of smoke from one’s smoking apparatus of choice? (Cheeky.) This has gotta be the shortest title track in history, doesn’t it? (Side note, The Avalanches’ definition of a wildflower according to the presser: “a certain type of person, a free spirit.”

11. harmony — 3.48

Members of a cult singing? Very retro. Some impressive whistling. Maracas. We’re scared our minds are being abducted at this point: “Yes, lord. Thank you, Jesus. Give me a dollar,” is uttered.   

12. live a lifetime love — 2.30

There’s mention of smoking drugs and then a ‘carload’ of revellers is pulled over by the cops.

13. park music — 0.54

*Shit, we missed it!*

14. livin underwater (is somethin wild) — 1.56

This one sounds like music students interpreting the song’s title.

15. the wozard of iz — 2.59

Okay, now they’re swapping vowels around in the song title to really mess with our heads. We can’t decipher opening lyrics and then there’s a claim: “I have been over the rainbow and I found nothing there...” Followed by an “Ah”-d melody that borrows from The Sound Of Music’s chorus.

16. over the turnstiles — 0.41

Super-snappy interlude.

17. sunshine — 3.37

Donna Summer-esque vocal and pixie-dust instrumentation. Then a thunderstorm and wind chimes are ushered in.  

18. light up — 1.34

Yep, we heard you doing that back at Track 10, dudes.  

19. kaleidoscopic lovers — 3.55

What it would sound like if two kaleidoscopes got busy while a tambourine and maraca watched on. The word “wildflower” is a recurring lyrical motif throughout this album.

20. stepkids — 4.32

Barking dogs. Someone coughs. Loose, layered ideas. You get a sense that these lyrics are composed of incidental, scattered memories from stepkids forced to play with biological kids.  

PAUSE

21. saturday night inside out — 4.59

"We inaugurate the evening just drumming up a little weirdness...” – that they do. Sleighbells! Euphoric melodies. Finally some words to lock into. It’s as if we fell asleep on a random’s couch after partying for days, got picked up by a furry and flown back to the comfort of our own bed. The electric blanket’s on three and everyone you were out with has had their memories erased. Bliss.