The Avalanches’ ‘Colour’ is moody melty psychedelia of the highest order
After waiting so long for new music from The Avalanches, coming back with ‘Frankie Sinatra’ didn’t fill me with much hope. Lacking charm, nuance and substance, the hook-filled sample was enough to lock on to you while Doom and Danny Brown did a fine job with a novelty-sounding beat. In the Zane Lowe interview that week, one of the band admitted to hating the song for a year which didn’t give me much hope in the first place.
It all lead to the feeling that 16 years later, an Avalanches record might be a big letdown. The presence of a lot of guests – Father John Misty, Biz Markie, Toro Y Moi, Jennifer Herrema of Royal Trux, Camp Lo, Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev, and Warren Ellis (Bad Seeds/Dirty Three) could be viewed as the last gasp of a band who had run out of ideas and were just getting it over the finish line.
‘Colours’, suggests we might be OK. The song from Wild Flower is the best side of The Avalanches’ woozy psychedelia that we all fell in love with on When I Left You. Jonathan Donahue of Mercury Rev adds vocal texture on a song that is more like what I’m hoping for from the album.
